ARTIFICIAL 



INCUBATING and BROODING 



THIRD EDITION 



The Successful Hatching 

and Rearing of Poultry by Modern 

Artificial Methods 



FIFTY CENTS 



QUINCY, ILLINOIS 
RELIABLE POULTRY JOURNAL PUBLISHING CO. 

1906 



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COPYRIGHT, 1906 

BY THE 

RELIABLE POULTRY JOURNAL 

PUBLISHING CO. 




SEVEN AGES OF SOUTH SHORE SOFT ROASTERS 



PREFACE 



Practical and successful incubating and brooding by 
artifical means have taken giant strides since the introduc- 
tion to the first edition of this book was written, some 
six years ago. To-day popular sized incubators are used 
extensively in every civilized country in the world where 
poultry is grown for market. We thought we had large poul- 
try plants six and seven years ago, and such was the case, 
but since that time still larger ones have come into existence, 
including, for example, the Stouffer Poultry Farm, Harrisburg, 
Pa., with a capacity of 100,000 ducks and broilers annually, us- 
ing one hundred 300-egg capacity incubators; Yardley Duck 
Farm, Yardley, Pa., green ducks, broilers and roasters, using one 
hundred and four 300-egg capacity incubators; Oxford Poultry 
Farm, Oxford, Pa v capacity 50,000 green ducks per year, using 
seventy-four 288-egg capacity incubators; Earl Stock Farm, 
New Holland, Pa. using sixty-five 300-egg capacity incubators; 
Woodlands Farm, Iona, N J., having 7,000 laying hens; For- 
est Lakes Poultry Farm, Browns Mills In the Pines, N. J., cap- 
acity 10,000 layers, using eighty-three 360-egg incubators; Hart- 
man Stock Farm, Columbus, Ohio, using fifty-seven 360-egg cap- 
acity incubators; Emma B. Poultry Farm, Gurnee, Lake Coun- 
ty, 111., using thirty-two 360-egg incubators; Ledgewood Duck 
Farm, Norwalk, Conn., capacity 50,000 ducks per annum, us- 
ing eighty-five 300-egg incubators; Weber Bros. Duck Ranch, 
Wrentham, Mass., capacity 45,000 ducks annually, and many 
other well-known farms of equal and less capacity. 

Undoubtedly, America still leads in the size and output of its 
poultry plants, but foreign countries are recognizing the op- 
portunity and embracing it. The fame of American incubators, 
brooders and poultry appliances has gone abroad and a num- 
ber of our manufacturers make foreign shipments, others have 
foreign agents and a few find it profitable to maintain their 
own offices and warehouses in the largest foreign centers. 

Five and six years ago comparatively little attention was 
paid to the poultry industry by the general and state govern- 
ments; to-day the Bureau of Animal Industry is making ex- 
tensive experiments and issues regularly valuable bulletins de- 
voted to poultry exclusively, and in the neighborhood of thirty- 
five state colleges are conducting poultry plants on which they 
are making a systematic study of poultry and egg production, 
including the problem of successful incubation and brooding 
by both natural and artificial means. At several of these col- 
leges annual poultry classes are conducted, with increasing 
membership, and numerous college graduates in poultry work 
are obtaining lucrative employment as managers of large mar- 
ket and standard-bred poultry plants. 

But the greatest progress made by incubators and brood- 
ers in supplanting the hen as a hatcher and brood mother has 
been among poultry fanciers, farmers and farmers' wives. For 
many years fanciers held aloof from the use of incubators, fear- 
ing to trust their valuable eggs to them. At present, on the 



contrary, there are a number of makes of incubators on the mar- 
ket that are so trustworthy in their operation and so correct in 
in principle that they hatch as good or better chicks than the 
hen will produce, and, as a result, a majority of the poultrymen 
who produce fancy fowls are using nowadays one or more in- 
cubators. Until recent years many farmers have looked on an 
incubator as a mysterious contrivance or an ingenious plaything. 
Incubators on the farm are now quite common. Where per- 
sons used to look askance at a neighbor who made bold to buy 
a "tin hen," the purchase of an incubator is now looked on as 
a stroke of enterprise and the possessor of a good incubator is 
envied. 

When it becomes known that a pair of chickens has 
been hatched in an incubator, raised in a brooder, fed on pre- 
pared chick food and brought to weigh 23 pounds dressed at 
six months old, and that the first prize birds at many of our 
largest shows are incubator-hatched and brooder-raised, pre- 
judice against the artificial hatching and brooding of chickens 
and ducks dies a speedy death in the minds of progressive poul- 
try raisers. The large poultry plants, the growth and present 
development of the poultry industry were impossible without 
the aid of good incubators and brooders. 

The incubator has come to stay. The practical success 
of properly-constructed incubators and brooders is no longer 
questioned by persons acquainted with the facts. The inven- 
tion and perfection of the small-sized portable incubator gave 
origin to what is now known as the poultry industry. With- 
out these modern hatchers and artificial mothers the great 
duck and poultry ranches could not exist. It would be futile to 
attempt to hatch 5,000 to 100,000 ducks, broilers or roasters by 
the use of hens alone. A person can hatch 100 to 1,000 chicks 
by the hen method, though a large amount of work is involved, 
and the expense, labor included, is out of all proportion to the 
results. With incubators, on the other hand, the cost, labor 
included, is greatly reduced and profits increased. 

One large-sized incubator, holding 360 hen eggs or 300 
duck eggs, will do the work of 30 hens. Five minutes' time, 
morning and evening, will give the incubator all the attention 
it requires, whereas the work of obtaining 30 broody hens, pro- 
viding nests for them, caring for them, dusting them with lice 
powder, seeing that they return to the right nests, cleaning the 
eggs and removing the broken ones, is a task that tries even 
the patience of a woman. The difference between the use of 
a modern, improved, automatic incubator and the use of hens, 
as herein briefly described, indicates the difference between 
present up-to-date methods and old-time conditions that were- 
in force before what is now called the poultry industry existed.. 
The successful incubator and brooder, therefore, have come to- 
stay and are highly important factors in the upbuilding of a. 
great industry. 



INTRODUCTION 




PERSON who is at all well informed will not dis- 
pute the claim that- the poultry business in the 
United States is now an important national 
industry. As a matter of fact, it is one of the 
most important, not alone in this, but in every 
other civilized country, for poultry and eggs 
are much esteemed the world around as a highly 
nutritious and palatable human food. These 
articles are admitted to have only one rival as a natural, com- 
plete and nutritious food, namely, milk and milk-products. 
The poultry industry rests solidly upon the actual value of 
poultry and eggs as food and will endure, therefore, as long as 
mankind exists. Its future will be identical, in a true sense, 
with that of the human race. Increase of population will 
mean a corresponding increase in the production of these well- 
nigh indispensible food products. 

Just how much the modern incubator and brooder have 
had to do with the recent rapid development of the poultry in- 
dustry in this and other countries is hard to estimate, but un- 
questionably they have been one of the most important factors. 
Hatching chickens by artificial means is almost as old as history, 
for it was practiced before the dawn of the Christian Era and 
has been practiced continuously in Egypt, China and other 
oriental countries down to the present day For an authen- 
tic account of how hen eggs are hatched at present by artificial 
means in Egypt, see report of the United States consul in the 
following pages. For many years past, in fact, during at least 
three or four centuries, chickens have been hatched artificially 
in European countries, notably in France, England, Belgium 
and Denmark; but it has remained for Yankee genius to modern- 
ize and practically perfect the present popular-sized incubators 
and brooders and to devise ways and means of hatching and 
raising chicks in large numbers by their use on the city lot, the 
village acre and the ordinary farm. 

There is no longer room to doubt that the incubator and 
brooder method of hatching and raising chickens and duck- 
lings is a marked improvement over the hen method. It is an 
improvement in the sense that it is cheaper, also that it is better, 
also that a far greater number of chickens and ducks can be rais- 
ed by the use of incubators than could profitably be raised with 
hens. The reader of this book will learn that broiler plants 
now exist and are being successfully operated in this country 
where thousands of chickens are raised in limited quarters by 
artificial means, and that duck ranches exist and are in success- 
ful operation where from twenty to fifty thousand ducklings 
are raised each season. All these chickens and ducklings are 
produced by artificial means and it would be practically im- 
possible to produce the same number by the hen method. To 
do so would require many acres of land, thousands of square 
feet of building and a small army of men and women to take 
care of the hens. The invention and perfection of the modern 
incubator has made all this possible, hence so far as the market 
poultry business is concerned, it owes a very great deal to arti- 
ficial incubating and brooding. 

When we come to consider the incubator and brooder on 
an ordinary farm, the thought suggests itself and gradually 
t.ake.% the form of actual belief that sooner or later the incuba- 
ind brooder will supplant the hen as a sitter and mother in 
the production of poultry, for it is well known that on hundreds, 
thousands of farms, taking the country over, the hen meth- 
od lias already been abandoned by the farmer and his wife, 
and incubators and brooders are being used simply and solely 
because they do better work with less labor, hence are more pro- 
fitable. The number of farms on which this condition exists is 

8 



increasing from year to year and the question arises, "How long 
will it be before every intelligent and progressive farmer or 
farmer's wife who wishes to better his or her condition, will 
find other and more profitable work for the hen to do than to 
sit on her eggs and serve as mother to a brood of chicks for a 
number of weeks, and will call to their assistance the artificial 
hen and mother — modern inventions that are able to do the 
work better and cheaper?" 

We believe it is only a question of a comparatively short 
time when the American hen will be used almost exclusively 
for the production of eggs, rather than have her valuable 
time wasted in doing work that can be done better and cheaper 
by artificial means. The hen has a monoply in the production 
of eggs. We can hatch her eggs for her and raise her chicks, 
but we cannot manufacture eggs that will hatch. She will 
always be in demand, therefore, and it is plainly to the advant- 
age of poultry keepers to use her exclusively for egg production. 

The following extract is taken from a report on artificial 
incubation and the annual egg yield per hen, appearing in the 
United States Statistics of Agriculture for 1902, based on the 
census of 1900, published by the Department of Agriculture, 
Washington, D. C: 

"The continued use of the incubator tends to make the 
hen forget, in a measure, her maternal instinct. This fact 
assumes gigantic importance when it is remembered that it has 
been discovered that there are 600 embryo eggs in the ovary 
of the hen. It has been further ascertained that two-thirds of 
this number can be secured in the first two years of the hen's 
life, provided suitable measurers are employed. If the tendency 
to become 'broody' can be suppressed and more time can be 
given to egg laying, incubation being left to the artificial incub- 
ator, and if, in addition, egg producing food be fed, the problem 
of getting the greatest number of eggs from the hen in the first 
two years of her life will be very near solution." 

The question is, how many of these 600 embryo eggs can 
we coax out of record layers during the first two years of their 
laying period, meaning from the time they are six months to 
thirty months old? That is the important point for practical 
poultrymen to consider, and clearly it is one of absorbing in- 
terest and far-reaching importance. 

Do we rightly appreciate the importance of this question? 
Let us see if we do. The government statistics, based on the 
census of 1900, report that the average egg yield per hen on the 
farms in the United States during the year 1899 was 5 5-10 doz- 
en, or sixty-six eggs per hen. 

On the other hand, Prof. G. M. Gowell, of the Maine Agri- 
cultural Experiment Station, reports that by proper feeding, 
by the use of trap nests which unfailingly record the best layers 
of a flock, and by discarding the poor layers, they have produc- 
ed a hen with a record of 251 eggs in 365 days and scores of 
them with records ranging from 200 to 251. 

Notwithstanding the improvement made in the past five 
years, it is doubtful if the average hen on the average Ameri- 
can farm, where she is still used as a sitter and mother, lays to 
exceed one hundred eggs during three hundred and sixty-five 
days; indeed, it is doubtful if she lays more than six or seven 
dozen eggs during the year. Poultrymen the country over 
have repeatedly demonstrated that an average flock of stand- 
ard-bred fowls can be induced to lay from one hundred and fifty 
to two hundred eggs per year, under proper treatment. When 
we consider that the hens of America laid during the year 
1890 over six hundred million dozen eggs, we obtain a glimpse 
of the national loss resulting from the average hen laying only 
seventy-five to one hundred eggs per year, when she could have 



INTRODUCTION 



been induced to lay twice that number. As this country doub- 
les and trebles in population, all such losses as this will be care- 
fully looked after and scientifically treated. This means, if it 
means anything, that the poultry industry will increase and de- 
velop along systematic lines and the incubator and brooder 
will be called into very general use. 

The writer of these lines has traveled upwards of seventy- 
five thousand miles during the last 12 years, visiting poultry 
plants, large and small, and during this time has made a care- 
ful study of different branches of the poultry business. Long 
strides have been taken during even this short period until at 
the present time we hear it commonly said, "The incubator is 
now a practical success. It is no longer any trouble for a per- 
son of ordinary intelligence and careful habits to hatch chickens 
in large numbers by the use of incubators, but it is not so easy 
a matter to raise them." This is true, and it isn't true. It is 
a singular fact that for every three people who can be found who 
will say, "Oh, yes, I hatch them all right, but I do not have 
very good success in raising them artifically," one person can 
be found who will say, "I cannot hatch them so well with in- 
cubators as I can with hens, but I can raise them in brooders 
much better than I can with hens." 

This simply means that different methods are employed, 
some of which are right and others wrong. It means simply 
that up to the present time more careful attention has been 
given by experts to the work of perfecting the incubator and 
demonstrating the proper use of it, than to the equally im- 
portant work of perfecting brooders and brooding systems and 
solving the problems of their successful operation. But at the 
present time this is changed and as the incubator nears per- 
fection much time and thought is being given to proper brood- 
ing devices, and with excellent results. The fact that many 
people in this country to-day are hatching eggs under hens and 
then placing the chicks in brooders to be raised artificially, is 
complete proof that chicks can be raised in brooders as well or 
better than they can with hens, and that the brooder is as much 
an improvement over the hen as an incubator is an improve- 
ment on the hen as a hatcher. It is a question merely of know- 
ing how, and that demand is what called forth this book. 

Admittedly our equipment of tools at present is by no 
means complete and we have mastered only the first princi- 
ples of the production of poultry and eggs in large quantities 
as an independent enterprise. The improvement of the utility 
breeds, the invention of popular-sized, portable incubators and 
brooders and the designing of suitable brooding houses have 
given us a fair start, and we may look forward with confidence 
that great progress will be made during the next few years. 
No man can safely set a limit to what will be accomplished in 
this direction within the next decade. Ten years ago the poul- 
try business in this country, as an independent business, was 
insignificant as compared with present achievements, but there 
is good reason to believe that the next ten years will show still 
greater progress. It cannot well be otherwise. Where one 
man was interested in the problem and trying to achieve results 
ten years ago, one hundred or more are now employed at the 
same task. To-day America leads the world in the knowledge 
and employment of successful methods of poultry production 
on a large scale, and probably it will maintain this position. 
Other countries are adopting our methods but we have secured 



a lead that will be hard to overcome. The financial risk is be- 
ing eliminated from the business until it is not greater now 
than that involved in other business enterprises, and men of 
means and brains are taking up the work in rapidly increas- 
ing numbers. 

Naturally, as poultry production became a distinct and 
important industry, it was divided into branches representing 
special lines of effort. Mankind had entered upon an age of 
specialties and the poultry industry did not prove an exception. 
First, the growers of poultry were merely poultry keepers; 
now r we have fanciers, duck growers, egg farmers, broiler 
raisers, etc. The development of these branches has been 
rapid, but not unnaturally so. It was natural that this develop- 
ment should result from special attention, special effort and 
singleness of purpose. The practical result has been that we 
now have thousands of fanciers, including hundreds of specialty 
breeders, and where, at the beginning, there was only one vari- 
ety of fowl, a black and brown wild bird of the jungle, to-day 
we have more than one hundred separate and distinct varieties; 
where twenty-five and thirty years ago the common puddle 
duck, weighing three to four pounds, was the best this country 
produced, we now have the Imperial Pekin, weighing ten pounds 
to the pair at ten weeks old, and ten to fourteen pounds each as 
adults, and have numerous "ranchers" who produce from five 
to sixty thousand ducks annually and find for them a ready 
and profitable market; where three or four decades ago a flock 
of one hundred or more hens was a curiosity and the egg basket 
was seldom larger than a man's hat, we now have egg farms 
that each carry from one to ten thousand laying hens, and the 
eggs are gathered in bushel baskets, five to twenty baskets be- 
ing required to gather the average daily yield, and where only 
a few years ago broilers, squab broilers, roasters, winter chick- 
ens and capons were strange words, because seldom used, they 
are now common expressions, while tons upon tons of expertly 
produced pqultry meat are consumed daily, and we have made 
only a fair start. 

The fancier, first and last, despite his "fuss and feathers," 
has been our good friend. What we have wanted, and asked 
for, he' has supplied. We asked for a "general purpose" fowl, 
and he gave us the Plymouth Rocks. We asked for more eggs, 
and he gave us the "200 eggs per year hen" of several varieties. 
We asked for better squab-broilers, broilers and roasters, and 
he gave us the Wyandotte. We asked for more meat and this 
demand was soon supplied by increasing the weights of the Asia- 
tics, by deepening the keels of Pekin ducks and by the produc- 
tion of Mammoth Bronze turkeys and Toulouse geese that tip 
the scale at twenty to forty pounds each. 

We have endeavored in this work to provide the most re- 
liable information to date for the guidance of persons who wish 
to use from one to one hundred incubators and from one or two 
brooders to the brooding and raising of thousands of chicks and 
ducklings by artificial means. The contributors are noted 
poultrymen and women — men and women who write from prac- 
tical, successful experience. Each may select the method best 
suited to his circumstances, feeling confident that close atten- 
tion to details and strict guard kept on expenses will bring 
success. EDITOR. 

Quincy, 111., April 1, 1906. 



ANCIENT ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING 







EGYPTIAN INCUBATORS 



SEMI-OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE UNITED STATES CONSUL AT CAIRO, EGYPT, 

SETTING FORTH INTERESTING AND SURPRISING FACTS REGARDING THE 

STATE OF ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING AS PRACTICED AT THE 

PRESENT DAY IN THE COUNTRY OF THE NILE 




IS quite generally known that the hatching and 
raising of chickens by artificial means was first 
practiced in Egypt. The fact now develops that 
artificial incubating and brooding is still exten- 
sively practiced in Egypt. Some time ago Mr. 
7 F. W. Judd, of' Michigan, wrote to the United 

States Consul at Cairo, Egypt, asking for infor- 
mation on the subject of artificial incubation in that country 
to date. In due time he received through the foreign or consu- 
lar department at Washington a lengthy and carefully prepared 
report, accompanied by three drawings, outlining the ground 
plan of a present-day Egyptian incubatory and two sectional 
views of same, showing the interior construction and arrange- 
ment. 

From this report we learn that the Egyptian hen, in many, 
many cases, has abandoned the work of sitting on eggs for pur- 
poses of incubation. In other words, her instinct to do this 
has become extinct in a majority of cases. If we want a hen to 
lay eggs and do nothing else for a living, she will accommodate 
herself to our wishes. Not only has she shown this disposition 
in Egypt and China, but in this country as well. About four 
-. ago Mr. Redkey, of Ohio, who used incubators exclusively 
during eight years only, reported that he noticed a decided fall- 
ing off in the bloodiness of the sixth, seventh and eighth gene- 
rations of hens produced in this manner. Possibly he was mis- 
taken, probably not. Since then a number of prominent poul- 
tryrnen have come to the same conclusion, that the tendency to 
broodiness can be bred out of a strain. Following are the semi- 
official report and drawings, presented under copyright, all 
rights being reserved: 

KEP0K1 Of THE ' OX AT CAIRO 

The artificial hatching of eggs has been so long practiced 
in Egypt that the hens have completely abandoned that part 
of their work to man. It is a regular industry arid the professors 



form a very close corporation, handing down their secrets from 
father to son. For three months of the year their time is com- 
pletely absorbed by constant attention at the incubatories. 

Although veiy successful in the work, they never attempt 
the hatching except during the months of February, March 
and April. The minimum temperature in Egypt is reached on 
the 20th of January; after this it steadily rises, and by Easter 
the hot weather may be expected. This makes the process 
difficult and the ovens are therefore closed for the year. 

The population of Egypt is very dense, about 700 per 
square mile. This agglomeration fosters the use of large in- 
cubatories, turning out each one from 300,000 to 600,000 chicks 
each season. In some villages there are from three to five of 
these establishments. They are generally near to some import- 
ant market place, and each one apparently in the center of a 
district of about 50,000 population. That is, each one is the cen- 
ter of a circle having a radius of five miles. It is this density 
of the population that has allowed this system of artificial 
hatching to become so very successful. At the same time it 
must be remembered that there is no other, as the native hen 
never sits on her eggs. 

Another important point is that the hatchers do not at- 
tempt to rear the young broods. Forty-eight hours after the 
chicks emerge from the shell they are scattered over the coun- 
try; overcrowding is thus prevented. This distribution is ef- 
fected in a very simple manner. As the incubator is near a 
market place, word is sent there that on such a day there will 
be so many young chicks. This news is quickly disseminated 
among the villages, and on the appointed day the women ar- 
rive with their cages and purchase the young chicks, which are 
generally sold by the hundred for about $1 . 50 per hundred. 
There are also a number of brokers or dealers who take the young 
chicks to the more distant villages. For this they have cages 
made from palm branches. They are divided into two stories, 
each of which is divided by a partition, so that the smaller divi- 



10 



ANCIENT ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING 



sion only contains about 250 chicks, thus preventing over- 
crowding. Two such cages will transport each 1,000 young 
birds, so that a man with a donkey easily manages 2,000 of 
them, and by nightfall has probably sold the entire lot at a dis- 
tance of five or six miles from the establishment. 

Once in the village the chicks become the property of the 
women, who take great care of them during the first week. 
For two or three days they are kept in cages in lots of twenty 
or thirty and fed on broken grains slightly moistened. At 
night the cages are taken into the houses and sometimes cover- 
ed with a bit of cloth. After these first few days the young birds 
are strong enough to forage for a living; they are then allowed 
to roam about freely and at night are kept in a sort of oven 
placed in a corner of the courtyard. This oven is made of un- 
burnt clay and in shape is like the letter U laid on 
one side— see drawing. The top is slightly perfor- 
ated. The entrance is closed by a heavy stone to 
keep off foxes and other vermin. 

When the young chicks are fairly feathered 
they are plucked perfectly clean and slightly 
greased. This adds greatly to their health, but 
detracts much from their beauty. It strikes a 
stranger as something extremely novel to see 
hundreds of perfectly naked chickens basking in 
the sun or running about. 

It is difficult to get any exact figures as to 
the number of these incubatories, but judging 
from those personally known to me, and their 
distances apart, I should estimate the number at 
150, with an average production of 300 000 per sea- 
son. This estimate must be well within the mark, 
as the population of Egypt is nearly 7,000,000 
and fowls form a very large part of the Egyptian 
diet, so that 45,000,000 eatable fowls would be 
a short supply. 

The ordinary form of the incubatories is an 
oblong 100 feet in length by 60 feet in width, the 
height varying from 12 to 15 feet. 111. 1, though 
not drawn exactly to scale, shows the general 
arrangements. The outer chamber A is divided 
into three rooms, the middle one masking the en- 
trance to the ovens and thus excluding the outer 
air. The door leading from A into the central hall 
is very small. B represents the ovens of the upper 
tier. C is the man-iole; the attendant stands in this 
and manipulates the eggs. D D are spaces in the 
central hall for the reception of the young chicks. 
These spaces are marked off by ridges of dried 
mud about 9 inches in height. Fig. 3 is a door 
giving access to the interior of the oven. Around 
the walls and parallel to it runs a raised ridge 6 
inches in height; between this,and the wall the fires 
are lighted. In the top of the dome is a small 
aperture about 2 inches square for the exit of smoke and reg- 
ulating the heat. 

The outer wall, 4 feet thick, is generally built of sundried 
bricks, the mortar simply mud. The space contained within 
the walls is divided as shown in Fig. 1. The circular ovens 
are built up and the spaces between them and the wall filled 
in with brick and mortar, the same as the outer wall. Each 
set of ovens, the upper and lower, is perfectly independent and 
is covered by a dome having a very small aperture in the 
crown. 

Fig. 2 represents the elevation on the line A B of Fig. 1. The 
height of the lower oven is 4 feet, that of the upper one 9 feet. 
The interior diameter between the ridges D D is 15 feet. 

Fig. 3 represents the elevation on the line C D of Fig. 1, and 
shows the disposition of the central wall and the doors of the 



ovens. For this particular incubatory the attendants consist 
of two men and a boy. 

In the month of January, about the 10th, fires are lighted 
in all the ovens and on the floor of the central hall. The en- 
tire building is thoroughly warmed to a temperature of 110 de- 
grees Fahrenheit. This heat is continued for three weeks, 
when the temperature is allowed to fall to 100 degrees Fah- 
renheit. 

The fires are at first composed of gelleh or dried cow dung, 
but when the eggs are placed in the oven coarse broken straw, 
mostly the joints, and sheep or goat dung is used. The fuel 
is placed in the trough between the hall and the ridge, and is 
lighted at one or more places, according to the degrees of heat 
required. This is the only means of regulating the heat. Ther- 




1— PLANS OF EGYPTIAN INCUBATORY 
Fig. I — Ground plan. AAA, rooms masking entrance to incubatory. B B B, ovens where eggs are 
hatched. C C. manholes admitting attendants to upper tier. D D. hallway. Fig. II — Sectional view length- 
wise. AAA, upper chamber to ovens. B B B, lower chambers. C C C, manholes. D D, fire spaces. 
Fig. Ill — Sectional view lengthwise — same lettering as for Fig. II. 



mometers are not used. The attendants endeavor to keep 
the heat a trifle greater than that of their own skin. 

While the oven is being warmed, notice is sent out to the 
villages that the establishment will purchase eggs on such a 
date. The country people arrive with large crates containing 
from 1 000 to 2 000. These are purchased outright by the 
establishment at the rate of $4 per 1000. 

The floor of the oven is covered with a coarse mat made 
of palm leaves; on this a little bran is sprinkled to prevent 
the eggs from rolling. The attendant changes the position 
of the eggs twice a day, taking those from near the manhole 
and placing them on the outer edge of the circle, and vice versa. 
At the end of six days the eggs are held up one by one towards 
a strong light. If they appear clear and of a uniform color, 
it is evident that they have not succeeded; but if they show an 



11 



XRlUk'lAI INCUBATING AND BROODING 



nie substance within, or the appearance of different shades, 
the chickens are already formed. Hie bad eggs are removed 
and the others are continued in their places for four days; at 
the expiration of this time they are again examined and put 

back into their places, the same continual shifting from the 
inner to the outer part of the eirele being observed. The doors 
of the ovens are kept hermetically closed by a small plank well 
Baulked This is removed in the forenoon and afternoon and 
Once during the night to see that the heat is kept at the proper 
point . 

After the eg£s have been fifteen days in the ovens they are 
daily examined, and so delicate is the touch of the attendant 
that he can at once distinguish if the egg is alive by the fact 
that it should be slightly warmer than his own skin. 

At the expiration of twenty-one days the chicks com- 
mence to emerge from the shells, the attendants constantly 
aiding them. They are placed in the spaces D D, 111. 1, and 
left to dry for nearly forty-eight hours, but they are not fed. 
The sale then commences and in a few hours they are spirited 
away. The temperature in the central hall is maintained at 
98 F.. and that of the ovens slightly more 



AIUMTIONAL FACTS 

"The Egyptian incubatory of to-day is but a reproduction of 
the one of thousands of years ago. In all these years the Egyp- 
tian breed of chickens has not changed, and the manner of re- 
production has remained immutable. Not long since I secured 
the metal stamp of a chicken, deposited in a tomb over two 
thousand years ago, and it is a perfect type of the Egyptian 
fowl of to-day, and when this stamp was struck, artificial in- 
cubation was a thing of actual existence in Egypt. 

• "Not only are the eggs put through the process of incu- 
bation more cheaply here than anywhere else in the world, but 
chicks are reared at an expense past comprehension, while 
disease and natural death among fowls, because of tireless care 
are almost unknown. One man and a boy are the sole attend- 
ants of the incubatory I explored * * Think of 234,000 
chicks owing life alone to the tender care, in three months' 
time, of an old man with most defective eyesight and a 16-yeai 
old boy, and some conception may be had of the economies of 
this Egyptian industry." — U. S. Consul General Card well, Sci- 
entific Am. Supplement, No. 29, 1890. 




12 



THE EGG AND ITS GERM 




A PRACTICAL STUDY OF EGGS 



A NON-TECHNICAL PRESENTATION OF THE FORMATION AND PRODUCTION 
OF EGGS— THE CAUSE OF DOUBLE-YOLKED, SOFT-SHELL EGGS AND CROOK- 
ED EGGS, ONE EGG WITHIN ANOTHER, ROTTEN NEW-LAID EGGS, ETC. 

G. BRADSHAW 




LTHOUGH eggs are a common article of food 
there is not a general knowledge amongst poul- 
trymen as to their formation. The shell or 
envelope . is white or colored according to the 
breed which produces it, and is composed of 
carbonate of lime, phosphate of lime, and animal 
gluten; salts of lime causing the particles to ad- 
here. Soft eggs are either eggs without a shell, 
or the shell may be so thin as to feel soft through the deficiency 
of salts of lime. It is a matter of surprise where a hen finds 
all the lime necessary, for if she lays 150 normal sized eggs in 
the year she will have produced two pounds of pure carbonate 
of lime. 

HENS ARE WONDERFUL CHALK MAKERS 

Mr. P. L. Simmonds F. L. Z., on this subject in the Journal 
of the Society of Arts, says: — "If a farmer has a flock of 100 
hens, they produce in egg shells about 137 pounds of chalk an- 
nually, and yet not a pound of the substance, or perhaps not 
even an ounce may be found on the farm. The materials for 
the manufacture are found in the food consumed, and in sand, 
pebbles, brickdust, pieces of bone, etc., which hens and other 
birds are continually picking from the earth. Their instinct 
is keen for these apparently innutritious and refractory sub- 
stances, and they are devoured with as eager a relish as the 
cereal grains or insects." 

If hens are confined to barns or outbuildings, it is obvious 
that the'egg-producing machinery cannot be kept long in action, 
unless materials for the shell are supplied in ample abundance. 
If fowls are confined in a room and fed with any of the cereal 
grains, excluding all sand, dust or earthy matter, they will go 
on for a time, and lay eggs, each one having a perfect shell made 
up of the same calcareous elements. 

THE SHELL IS A "SIEVE" 

The shell is porous to such an extent that when examined 



by a microscope it has quite a sieve-like appearance, and is 
permeable by the air, otherwise the chicken could not live dur- 
ing the incubating period. 

This porosity of the shell, although absolutely necessary 
when the eggs are to be incubated, is detrimental when such 
have to be used as an article of food from the fact that by means 
of these minute perforations there is a continual evaporation, 
so that from the time the eggs are laid until consumed there is 
a wasting and deterioration of the contents, the extent of which 
is dependent on the temperature and other conditions under 
which they are kept, it being very well known that eggs deter- 
iorate much quicker in summer than in winter. 

FORMATION AND PRODUCTION OF AN EGG 

Anyone, upon opening after death the body of a hen, will 
find a cluster of eggs in formation much like a bunch of grapes, 
and called the ovarium (see illustration.) These, however, 
are but rudimentary eggs, and I have counted as many as sev- 
enty in one bunch, and are in size from a pin's head to the full- 
sized yolk of an egg. Each of the eggs is contained within a 
thin transparent sac and attached by a narrow pipe or stem to 
the ovary, and during the laying period of the hen these eggs 
are maturing and thus keeping up the supply which she lays. 

These rudimentary eggs have neither shell nor white, con- 
sisting wholly of yolk, on which floats the germ of the future 
chicken; and as they become larger and larger they arrive at 
a certain stage when, by their own volition, weight, or other 
cause, they become individually detached from the bunch and 
fall into a sort of funnel leading into a pipe or passage called 
the oviduct — this organ in the hen being from 22 to 26 inches 
long. 

THE COATING OF ALBUMEN 

During the passage of this egg or ovum to the outer world 
it becomes coated with successive layers of albumen — the 
white — which is secreted from the blood-vessels of the oviduct 



13 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING 



in the form of a thick glairy Quid, and is prevented from mixing 
with the yolk by the membrane or sac which surrounded it be- 

it became detached from the cluster. It is also strength- 
ened by a second and stronger membrane, formed around the 
first immediately after falling into the funnel, ami having what 
is like -.wo twisted cords of a more dense albuminous character, 
called by anatomists ehalazes which pass quite through tin- 
white at the ends, and being, as it were, embedded therein, thus 
preventing the yolk and germ from rolling about when the egg 



ing duplicated as well as the yolk. Should these yolks be fer- 
tilized and the egg hatch, we get the occasional four-legged 
or other chicken monstrosities. 



SOFT-SHELLED EGGS 



A further result of stimulating food is varied from the above 
when the ova mature in excess of one a day. In place of fall- 
ing into the passage in pairs, as above, the two drop in sepa- 
rately but on the same day. This results in soft eggs, not from 




2— OVARY AND OVIDUCT OF A HEN 



is moved, and serving to keep the germ uppermost, so that it 
may best receive the heat imparted during incubation. 

THE AIR CHAMBER 

It is during the passage of the egg through the lower part 
of the oviduct that it gets covered with the two skins which 
are found inside the shell. These, although lying close around 
the egg, at the thick end become separate, and form what is 
called the air-bubble or chamber. This, in newly-laid eggs, is 
a mere speck, and is that portion which shows the result of the 
evaporation previously referred to. This speck of air space 
becomes daily larger as the egg gets older, and is frequently 
equal to one-fourth of the entire egg. This egg-chamber, if 
perforated with the finest needle will prevent the egg hatching. 

When the egg has advanced more than half-way down the 
oviduct, it is still destitute of shell, which begins to be formed 
by a process of secretion, and when about completed the various 
shades of brown and tinted coloring matter are imparted in 
those breeds in which colored eggs are peculiar; sometimes in 
very brown eggs white spots appear, but which can readily be 
rubbed off. When the shell and coloring are complete the egg 
continues to advance along the oviduct till the hen goes to the 
nest and lays it. 

THE RESULTS Of TOO STIMULATING OR EXCESSIVE FOOD 



are produced from the surplus food, which is that 
over and above what is required for the sustenance of the hen, 
and, if such is too stimulating, or given in excessive quantities, 
the result is that in the former case the ova are produced so 
rapidly that sometimes two of them drop into the oviduct togeth- 
er, which results in the eccentricities which frequently puzzle the 
poultry keeper. These ova travel together along the pas- 
sage and receive the white separately, but become enveloped 
in one shell, and when laid are commonly known as a double- 
yolked egg, but more properly it is a double egg, the white be- 



the want of shell-forming material, but rather because the shells 
cannot be formed as fast as the mature egg is ready for such 
covering. 



CROOKED EGGS 

Crooked eggs 
are no uncommon 
thing in the poultry 
yard, and are at- 
tributable as fol- 
lows: Twenty-four 
hours are usually 
sufficient for the 
formation of a per- 
fect shell, but when 
b y stimulation a 
second ovum falls 
close on its prede- 
cessor, reaching it 
before laid, the sec- . 
ond egg, which is up 
to this time soft and 
is lying against the 
hard one, becomes 
covered with a shell, 
and when laid pre- 
sents a flat or crook- 
ed side the result of 
its position against 
the hard one. 




3— DEFORMED EGGS 

albumen and shell. 



1 — "Marble-sized" eggs containing 
but no yolk. 

2 — Crooked egg. 

3 — Two eggs with an imperfect shell 

4 — Double-yolked eggs. 



ONE EGG WITHIN ANOTHER— "MARBLE-SIZED" EGGS 

To over-feeding is also attributable the further irregularity 
of one perfect egg being found within another, and caused by 
irritation of the oviduct, which contracting in front of the per 



1 + 



THE EGG AND ITS GERM 



fectly-formed egg instead of 
behind it, forces it back until it 
meets another yolk, when the 
two join and again become coat- 
ed with the white and the shell, 
thus producing another wonder. 
Other abnormalities are occa- 
sionally seen, and particularly in 
the smaller poultry yards. Some- 
times when the ova are nearly 
exhausted by continuous laying, 
the secreting organs may be 
most active, which results in 
small marble-sized but perfect- 
looking eggs, which are merely 
a shell covering a portion of al- 
bumen. Such "eggs" when laid 
have the peculiarity of never 
having been at any stage at- 
tached to the'ovary, but are a 
product only of the oviduct. 

ROTTEN NEW-LAID EGGS 

To the internal fatness of 
the hen are due other eccentri- 
cities than those mentioned, in- 
cluding the apparently parad- 
oxical feat of laying rotten new- 
laid eggs, this being a not in- 
frequent occurrence. The egg, 
being unable to force its way 
through the fatty oviduct, is 
retained two or three days near 
tue mouth of this organ, and, if 

a fertilized one, the heat of the hen's body tends to putrify it, 
and when ultimately laid it is in an addled condition. To 
other causes, but principally diseased organs, is due a depar- 
ture from the normal in the way of color. A\hen which lays 
white or brown eggs, on rare occasions produces one almost 
black, while at other times these vagaries much resemble the 
dark green of the emu's eggs, and, in most instances, the 
shells are rough, wavy, corrugated, or otherwise irregular. 
Then there are instances of foreign matter being found in eggs, 





5— THE LIFE THAT GIVES VIGOR 



4— HAPPY MOMENTS FOR THE LEGHORNS 

clots of blood being nothing unusual. This is the result of the 
breaking of a blood-vessel internally, and, again, possibly the 
effect of over feeding. 

FOWLS PRODUCING FAULTY EGGS SHOULD BE DISCARDED 

Fowls from whatever cause producing any of the above 
misshapen or otherwise faulty eggs should at once be 
disposed of, for although in some cases a reduced diet may 

bring them back to their nor- 
mal production, still the slightest 
cause will frequently prompt 
the organs to their previous 
irregularities, the fowls thus 
becoming unprofitable members 
of the flock. As has been seen 
the majority of troubles men- 
tioned are preventable ones, and 
largely due to the poultry keepers' 
mistaken kindness in over feed- 
ing, but there are other ills of a 
more serious nature than those 
mentioned. The producing organs 
are of a most delicate nature, 
and, from the amount of work 
they have to do, are not only 
easily disarranged but are subject 
to a variety of diseases, the nature 
of many of them being unknown 
to the ordinary poultry keeper. 



15 



THE BREEDING STOCK 

NECESSITY OF C \K1TI 1 Ml ECTION— BREEDERS SHOULD BE SOUND, VIGOROUS AND 
wn l MATURED— PRACTICAL POINTS ON MATING, FOOD, CARE AND MANAGE- 
MENT OV BREEDING STOCK— HAVE FERTILE EGGS-HOW TO DETECT STERILITY 



P. T. WOODS, M. I). 




IHERE are low poultrymen who recognize the great 
importance of the condition of the breeding 
stock from which the eggs for incubation are 
taken and its relation to their success or failure. 
The breeding stock is the foundation of the busi- 
- the life of your undertaking and the 
source of all the eggs which you intend shall 
produce chickens. Unless the breeding birds are 
sound, healthy and in the best possible condition for the 
reproduction of their kind, satisfactory results cannot be 
lined. Eggs from well-fed, sound parent stock will 
hatch strong, sturdy chicks, even under what are consid- 
I quite unfavorable conditions. Eggs from birds out 
of condition, either from inbreeding, unsanitary surround- 
ings, improper food, sickness or other causes, will never 
produce chicks that are worth the trouble it takes to hatch and 
rear them. When chicks die in the shell, are slow to hatch, or 
die off in large numbers within ten days after hatching, do not 
hlame the incubator or brooder. First investigate carefully 
the condition of the breeding stock and the care, housing and 
food they receive. Nine times out of ten you will find that there 
is where the trouble lies. Breed for health if you wish to have 
and produce healthy chicks. Feed, house and care for health 
if you would keep your stock healthy. Remember that the 
eggs are the seed from which you expect to produce and grow 
your crop of chicks; you cannot get good wheat from poor seed. 
It takes generations of careful selection to produce the best. 
Even then poor care and careless management may spoil it all. 
It is just the same with chickens whether you use artificial or 
natural methods. To be successful you must start right; get 
a solid, lasting foundation. 

Breed for the health of future generations by beginning 
now to select your breeders for soundness, vigor — in a word — 
Health. Keep them healthy by good food, good care and good 
management. Do not sow poor seed. 

•I HE SELECTION OF THK BREEDING MALE 

From the breeders standpoint the male bird is practically 
one-half of the breeding pen, i. e., you depend on him to fertil- 
ize the eggs laid by all the hens with which he is mated. For 
this reason whatever else you do, you cannot afford to be care- 
less or indifferent in your selection of the cock or cockerel that 
is to head the pen. Furthermore, he must be carefully watched 
to see that he is capable of performing the duty to which he 
is assigned. Any laxness in this particular is fatal to good 
results. 

Aside from being a typical standard specimen of the vari- 
ety which he represents, he should also typify perfect health 
and soundness. Inferior or unhealthy male birds have no place 
whatever in the breeding pen. Never breed from a bird that 
has had or lias apparently recovered from any serious sick- 
ness. In selecting a male bird for the head of a breeding pen, 
choose one that is well proportioned, of good size and well 
matured; broad, smooth backed; tail well spread at base of A 
(don't breed a "pinched tail";; full, deep chested; stout, strong 
legs and thighs set well apart, good carriage and symmetry; 
well-formed comb and wattle-;, neither too large nor too small, 
of a bright, healthy red; keen, sharp, bright eyes; a well-shaped, 



stout beak of medium length, the whole head being perfectly 
proportioned to the body and carried in a manner that gives 
the birds an alert, active, business-like appearance. He should 
be in the best possible condition and capable of taking his place 
as head of the pen and holding it against all comers. Aggres- 
siveness in the male bird is a desirable quality. "Hen-feather- 
ed" males with an effeminate disposition have no place in the 
breeding pen. 

DISQUALIFICATIONS IN THE BREEDING MALE 

Do not breed from any bird, no matter how perfect a stand- 
ard specimen he may seem to be, if he shows the following symp- 
toms indicating that he is physically unsound: 

Shortness of breath on running or jumping; blueness or 
dark color of comb, face and wattles after chasing a hen or 
attempting service; pale face and comb; rattling in throat; 
canker of throat or mouth that does not yield promptly to treat- 
ment; putrid discharge from nostrils; foul discharge from vent; 
vertigo; violent shaking of the head with tendency to step back- 
ward or to one side;, staggering or wobbling gait; jerking walk 
like "spring halt"; paralysis of any kind; emaciated, debili- 
tated condition; leg weakness; foot, hock or wing ulcers or ab- 
scesses; deformities of any kind or any other symptom of a dis- 
eased condition. Examine the mouth and throat carefully 
and discard the bird if the mucous membrane appears unhealthy. 
Note carefully the condition of the legs. (Scaly leg can be 
easily cured, but it should be done before the bird is placed in 
the breeding pen, for the disease is contagious). If the legs 
feel hot and dry, look closely for other symptons of disease. 
Hot feet and legs mean that something is wrong with the bird. 
It is a sure sign. 

Breeding from an unhealthy male is sure to result in dis- 
appointment; either he will not fertilize the eggs at all or you 
will get weak germs. Weak germs are the cause of chicks dy- 
ing at all stages of developement during incubation and for 
several days after hatching. Also there is always the possibil- 
ity and probability that chicks from such source, if they live, 
will inherit some tendency to disease, which will result in direct 
losses or indirect ones by continuance of the inheritance of an 
unsound constitution in the progeny, that years of careful 
breeding, later, will find it difficult to uproot. 

CARE OF THE BREEDING MALE 

When you get a sound healthy male bird try to keep him 
in good condition. If he is as gallant and attentive as he should 
be during the breeding season, he may easily get out of condition . 
Avoid this by removing him from the flock occasionally and 
feeding a few tid-bits of fresh meat (cooked or uncooked) fresh 
green food and a mixture of hard grains. You will run no risk 
by keeping him for a day or two in a comfortable coop apart 
from the flock where he cannot see or hear the hens, and it may 
save him from wasting his energies in useless services. This 
is important for an active, attentive male, when running with 
his flock, often does not eat a sufficient amount of food to keep 
himself in the best condition. A little attention given to sup- 
plying him with occasional meals away from his harem will 
be well repaid in the results gained thereby. Keeping the male 
bird with the hens^will not insure strongly fertile eggs unless 



16 



THE EGG AND ITS GERM 




6— WHITE WYANDOTTES IN A HARVEST FIELD 



he is well cared for and in good breeding condition. Too many 
people overlook this matter or fail to consider its importance. 
Do not pen him up with other males — it leads to bad habits 
and is more injurious than continuous running with a flock of 
hens. Do not keep him away from the hens too long; a few 
days each month is sufficient, except while molting, when he 
will be better if kept in a coop by himself, where he can have 
a small outdoor run. 

THE GROWING COCKEREL 

Mr. A. J. Silverstein, who gave much attention to pedigree 
breeding and the proper conditions for growing breeders,, once 
told the writer that he was convinced that while it is a good 
thing to keep the growing pullets away from the cockerels, it 
is not a good thing to bring up young males in the same man- 
ner. He recommended that males intended for breeders be so 
far as possible brought up in company with a few good, healthy 
hens, claiming that they thus become accustomed to the com- 
panionship of the opposite sex and better fitted for the work 
for which they are intended; that they were more satisfactorily 
attentive, less brutal, when so raised and also that they were 
less liable to "go to pieces" when placed in the breeding pen. 
There is much truth in this assertion. The writer, from actual 
experience extending over a number of breeding seasons, is 
convinced that the monastic method of bringing up a herd of 
cockerels together in one flock without female society is certain 
to result in the permanent injury to some of the most promis- 
ing specimens as well as unfitting a number of others for use- 
ful work in the breeding pen. It is much better to permit them 
to run with the pullets and risk possible injury to the latter. 
The best plan is to turn a number of the most promising cock- 
erels out on a good farm range with a flock of hens and let the 
best birds win. 

Do not attempt raising a large number of celibate cockerels 
in one flock if you wish to avoid disappointment in the breed- 

17 



ing pen. It is almost cer- 
tain to induce disease of 
the generative organs and. 
subsequently sterility. 

SELECTION OF FEMALE BREEDERS 

The female breeders 
should be selected with as 
great care as the male bird. 
Health and sound bodily 
vigor should be the first 
consideration; size and 
shape the next, and then 
other standard requisites. 
Bear in mind that the size 
and shape of the female 
governs to a large extent 
the size and shape of the 
progeny. Choose well-grown 
well-matured, sound 
healthy specimens that have 
never been seriously sick. 
Prolific layers are more prone 
to lay infertile eggs than or- 
dinary layers, chiefly because 
of the great number of eggs 
they produce and subsequent 
inattention on the part of 
the male. This may be over- 
come by giving the male a 
smaller flock of mates or by 
introducing a fresh male bird 
as an alternate. 

An individual egg record 
kept with the aid of trap nests 
will aid the discovery of sterile hens so that they may be re- 
moved from the flock. The leading authorities agree that there 
is no egg type that indicates prolificacy. The trap nest and in- 
dividual egg and hatching record are the only means of deter- 
mining which hens pay. 

Unhealthy hens should have no place in the breeding pen. 
Any symptons of disease including all those mentioned as dis- 
qualifying male breeders apply with equal force to the selection 
of the female breeding birds. In addition to these no female 
should be used that habitually lays mis-shapen or deformed 
eggs, or eggs containing blood clots. Hens broken down be- 
hind, or those having abdominal tumors causing the abdomen 
to drag on the ground should also be barred from the breeding 
pen. 

MATING 

In mating the breeding pens, avoid, as far as possible, hav - 
ing the same faults in both males and females, as thereby there 
is more liability of the tendency or predisposition to have these 
faults being transmitted to the progeny. As a rule the best 
results in hatchable eggs will be obtained by mating well matur- 
ed cockerels with yearling or two-year old hens; or yearling 
or two-year-old cocks with well-grown, fully matured pullets. 
Under these conditions there is no occasion to worry about 
pullet eggs producing weak or imperfect chicks, always pro- 
vided that the parent stock is sound, vigorous and healthy. 
As a rule medium sized birds for the variety make the most 
satisfactory breeders. 

Do not (unless in exceptional cases where the specimen is 
sufficiently valuable to take the risk of possible failure) use 
breeders of either sex older than two-year-olds — that is, birds 
older than about thirty months at the beginning of the breed- 
ing season. 

Right here it will be well to differentiate the terms applied 
to breeding birds, both male and female. A pullet is usually 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING 




7— RHODE ISLAND RED BREEDERS 

spoken of as such until she has passed through one year of laying 
(her pullet year) or until she is about eighteen months old, when 
she becomes a yearling hen, which term applies until she has 
passed her second year as a layer and becomes a two-year-old 
hen. A cockerel remains such until he has passed his cockerel 
year or until about eighteen months old — assuming that he be- 
gan developing his adult plumage by the time he was six months 
old. He is then considered as a yearling cock until the close of 
the second breeding season after he reached maturity, when he 
is rated as a two-year-old. These terms are used in this sense 
only when applied to breeding birds. 

NUMBER OF FEMALES TO A MALE 

The number of females which may be mated with a cock or 
cockerel depends largely on existing conditions. Commonly ten 
females is considered a sufficient number for a cock and fifteen 
for a cockerel. This rule has many exceptions. Some males are 
not fit to care for more than five or six females, while others 
can prove themselves capable of attending to fifty throughout 
a breeding season. A male that in confinement could only care 
for ten to fifteen will often easily serve thirty hens satisfactorily 
when given free range. 

The number of hens a male should have also depends largely 
on how many are laying and how recently they began to lay. 

This will be discussed further in another paragraph. 

FECUNDITY VS. STERILITY 

It is often stated that the prolific hen after laying a 
considerable number of eggs is prone to become sterile or 
that a large number of her eggs come infertile. Without 
doubt this is a fact, yet the fault does not necessarily lie with 
the i 

In fact, it may easily be proved that it is no fault of the 
ben by giving her a new mate, when the eggs will usually 
again run high in fertility. 

The matter i.s readily explained by the fact (easily ofo- 

"'1 but. hitherto mentioned by but few writers; Mr. E. 
Cook, author of "Incubation," published in England, was 
among the firs! to mention it) that the male when intro- 
duced into a flock of hen- i- -oon surrounded by the layers 
and those about to lay and that he is particularly attentive 
to those near laying or lately become productive, while those 
which have been laying some time or which are unpro- 
ductive are more or less neglected. 

Failure to serve these prolific mates sufficiently 



often, and the fact thai tin- male has his favorites among 
the lions, is in a large measure the cause of infertile eggs 
from these members of the flock. Again with the prolific 
layer t here being a greater number of eggs laid, it. is but 
reasonable to expect that more eggs will escape impregna- 
tion. Where the service is frequent, eggs which escape 
fertilization in the first service may become fertilized by 
the second or any succeeding service. 

This explains why it is possible for a hen to lay eggs 
that produce chicks having the characteristics of more than 
one sire, although one of the parent males has been intro- 
duced to the flock but a short time. For example, if cock 1 
has served the hen at the beginning of her lay and cock 2 
be then introduced for service, his seed may impregnate eggs 
which escaped the service of 1; so that while eggs in both 
the first and last litter may produce chicks from cock 1, a 
number of intermediate eggs may produce chicks having 
cock 2 for a parent. 

A male bird given all the females he can attend to 
during his first season, will often wear himself out and 
become practically sterile and useless as a breeder the fol- 
lowing year. 

Mating up the pens in the fall and permitting the birds to 
run together throughout the year is also in many cases respon- 
sible for the low fertility of the eggs from that pen. The cock 
bird needs intervals of rest, but should not be kept from his mates 
sufficiently long to become morose and indifferent. Extremes in 
either respect produce unsatisfactory results. It is not reason- 
able to expect a male that has been running with the flock 
throughout a long season to possess strong fecundity unless he 
has received especial care and attention in both food and rest, 
as recommended in advice for care of male bird. 

THE SERVICE 

After the introduction of a male to a flock, it is possible to 
obtain eggs in a few days that will hatch chicks of his get, 
though if another male has preceded him it may be two weeks 
(possibly longer) before all the eggs laid can be safely credited 
as fertilized by the male last introduced. 

How long after service impregnation takes place is not pos- 
itively known, though it is probable that it may be accomplished 
in from sixteen to twenty-four hours, but that under some con- 
ditions a much longer time may elapse. The sperm of the male 
is capable of living a considerable time in the oviduct, remaining 
active with full power to impregnate any ripe ovum with which 
it comes in contact. It has been established by many experi- 
ments that one service will suffice for the majority of eggs laid 
from the second day to two weeks immediately thereafter. 

Some observers claim that one service is sufficient for one 




8— PLENTY OF SHADE IS ESSENTIAL FOR SUCCESS 



THE EGG AND ITS GERM 



month, providing the hen was just starting a litter at the time 
of service. 

From this it follows that it is not necessary to waste the 
strength of the male bird in useless service. Where the poultry- 
man possesses an especially fine male from which he desires to 
obtain the greatest possible number of chicks, the bird could 
be made to care for a considerable flock of females by mating 
him only with the layers or those about to lay; or by dividing the 
layers into several flocks and permitting the male to run for a 
few days twice a month with each flock, giving him brief intervals 
of rest between. In fact, it is possible and quite practicable as 
well to keep an exceptionally fine male "standing at stud" as 
is common in breeding other domestic animals, and to bring the 
females to him for service at regular intervals once every week 
or two weeks; always endeavoring to have the hen served when 
about to begin her lay. 

TESTS OF STERILITY 

There is only one way to test the fecundity of the male 
bird and that is by mating him to several females and then 



hatches are seldom as satisfactory since the germs are more 
liable to be weak. 

Semi-confinement in large runs and roomy houses will give 
good results if the fowls are well cared for. The quarters should 
be kept in good sanitary condition and the ground of the runs 
kept sweet by plowing and planting at regular intervals not 
too far apart. 

Close confinement in cramped quarters and small runs is 
fatal to successful breeding. Exercise is essential to health and 
the breeding stock must be kept busy if fertile eggs and strong 
germs are wanted. 

SUGGESTIONS AS TO HOUSING 

Breeding birds should be comfortably housed, but this 
does not mean that they need to be pampered or to have speci- 
ally constructed poultry houses or buildings supplied with arti- 
ficial heat. The men who are getting the best results in pro- 
ducing eggs that hatch well in the winter season house their 
birds in what are commonly spoken of as cold houses. 
These are tight, well-made buildings either provided with 




9— WHITE WYANDOTTE PULLETS RESTING ON A HOT SUMMER DAY 



incubating their eggs. If the eggs do not show a good percent- 
age strongly fertile, the male is useless as a breeder. 

Sterile females can be located by means of trap nests and 
individual egg records. If after incubating a number of eggs 
from any hen a large percentage show infertile, try her with 
another male and test the eggs again. If she still fails to pro- 
duce fertile eggs in sufficient numbers to make her worth using, 
discard her. 

Hens with very long, downy fluff feathers (particularly 
Cochins and Brahmas) will sometimes appear to be sterile, but 
if the fluff is plucked or clipped so as not to interfere with ser- 
vice, they usually prove to be all right and produce their share 
of fertile eggs. 

FREE RANGE VS. CONFINEMENT 

Birds on free range, if otherwise well cared for, will pro- 
duce a greater percentage of strongly fertile eggs than those 
kept in confinement, other things being equal. The confined 
birds may produce a considerable number of fertile eggs, but the 



scratching sheds where the fowls can have a sheltered place to 
exercise and are at the same time supplied with an abundance 
of fresh air, or closed houses having windows or doors in the 
front which are opened wide daily to admit a large volume of 
fresh air and practically convert the house into an open shed. 
In such buildings the birds keep in better health and are less 
liable to colds than when confined in warm houses and houses 
supplied with artificial heat. 

In the matter of housing the safest plan is to provide com- 
fortable, tight buildings, so arranged that they can be thorough- 
ly aired and sunned daily while the birds are exercising. Keep 
these buildings practically wide open throughout the day ex- 
cept on very stormy days. In most localities there will be 
very few days in winter when the house cannot be kept open for 
a few hours during some portion of the day. Such houses 
should always be closed at least an hour or two before dark 
and remain tightly closed all night. Keep the houses clean and 
in a sanitary condition. Filth and success are sworn enemies 



19 



ARTIFICIAL 1NCT BATING AND BROODING 




10— GETTING THE RIGHT START 

and are never found on the same poultry plant. Care should 
be taken not to overcrowd the poultry buildings and there 
should not be more fowls in the pen than can find comfortable 
roosting accommodation. As a rule it is a good plan to allow 
about 10 square feet of floor space per breeding bird and not 
to run more than 15 or 20 birds in a pen, according to the va- 
riety. 

Bear in mind that exercise is of vital importance in keep- 
ing the breeding birds in good condition and for this reason 
they should receive a large proportion of their dry grain food 
fed in deep litter. It is the active, busy, hustling hen who is 
always scratching in litter and may be found at almost any time 
buried tail deep, with straw flying in all directions, that pro- 
duces the eggs that hatch best. Any good litter material may 
be used, either straw, chaff, corn-stover or planer shavings, and 
this should cover the floor of the breeding pens from 6 to 10 inches 
deep. Leaves may be used, but they do not make as satisfac- 
tory litter material as either straw or shav- 
ings. 

After the snow comes, breeding stock 
should always be kept confined to poultry 
houses until the weather becomes settled in 
the spring. Dry earth floors, well littered, 
are very satisfactory, but if there is any 
tendency of the earth floor to be damp or 
wet, a wooden floor is more desirable. Do 
not allow breeding birds to run on the snow 
and ice or to eat frozen grass or weeds. 

FOODS AND FEEDING 

Given sound, healthy breeding stock, 
well housed., the food and the manner of 
feeding it plays a most important part in 
the getting of fertile, hatchable eggs It is 
not necessary for the breeder to trouble him- 
self with regard to the chemical corn position 
of the grains or the nutritive ratio of the 
food fed so long as he supplies his birds 
with an abundance of good, wholesome food 
in variety. It is much better to allow the 
birds a reasonable opportunity to balance 
their own ration than for a breeder to 
attempt to prepare a scientifically bal- 
anced food, the formula for which is based 
largely on guess work, haphazard reading 
and theory. The average healthy fowl 



instinctively knows what it wants 
and what its system craves and 
can be trusted to balance its own 
food ration if given an opportu- 
nity. This should not be con- 
strued to mean that the poultry- 
man should entirely ignore the 
chemical content of the foods he 
supplies his flocks. The govern- 
ment chemists supply us with am- 
ple and authoritative information 
as to the constituents of all the 
foods available for poultry feeding. 
We know that the grains like 
wheat, barley, corn and oats are 
well proportioned in regard to 
protein, carbohydrates, fats and 
mineral matter. We also know 
that clover and alfalfa are rich in 
protein and mineral matters, pos- 
sess health giving properties and 
supply the necessary bulky food 
without which the digestive organs 
of the fowl will not work properly. We also know that in 
beef scraps and other meat food we have a product rich ill 
animal protein, differing in some not thoroughly understood 
way from vegetable protein, and very essential to the life and 
health of the fowl. If we know this we have little need to 
worry ourselves concerning the chemistry of foods, provided we 
give the birds an opportunity to select what they need as 
they require it. 

Wheat, barley and corn are named because they are the 
most desirable and most easily obtainable grains, as well as 
the most economical. Oats, if of good quality, may be sub- 
stituted where barley cannot be obtained, but are not nearly 
as satisfactory. Barley and corn can be made to answer if 
wheat is scarce and high. Heavy wheat bran is desirable for 
use in dry or moist mashes. The coarse light bran contains 
more fibre and is of less value. Clover or alfalfa is necessary 
to afford roughage and supply a substitute for the anti-scor- 




11— ISI.ACK I.ANGSHAN CHICKS 



20 



THE EGG AND ITS GERM 



butic and medicinal properties of fresh plant life. Breeders 
who use clover or alfalfa freely and encourage their fowls to 
eat it, get the best results in fertile eggs. 

It is not possible to get strong, well fertilized, hatchable 
eggs where birds are forced for egg production by feeding con- 
centrated mash foods. Mash food fed too freely or too often 
will result in large watery eggs that will not hatch well. The 
free use of moist mashes also tends to create more or less dis- 
turbance of the digestive organs, resulting in looseness of the 
bowels or some other evidence of lack of perfect condition. 
This does not mean that mashes should not be fed to breeding 
birds, but that rich mash food should never be pushed with a 
view to getting the greatest possible egg production if the eggs 
are intended for hatching purposes. 

Highly concentrated mashes, containing quantities of beef 
scrap or other meat food, should not be fed to breeding stock. 
Any considerable amount of scrap or other meat food fed in 
the grain mixture has a tendency to create digestive distur- 



always a morning mash. Whatever time you select for feed- 
ing mash, be sure to have it come at the same feeding time each 
day. No matter what else you may neglect, do not fail to see 
that your birds have regular meals or, if you dry feed, that they 
are always supplied. Careless, or irregular feeding methods 
are sure to upset the condition of the stock. 

If the birds do not take kindly to the clover in the mash 
at first use only a very small quantity and gradually work 
it up as the fowls become accustomed to it. The other 
feeding should be a mixture of hard dry grains fed in the 
litter. 

A good scratching grain mixture can be made of 30 pounds 
each of wheat and barley to 40 pounds of freshly cracked or 
whole corn. Keep grit, oyster shell and dry, pure beef scrap 
constantly before the birds in a grit box or food hopper. In 
addition to this, whenever obtainable, hang cabbage in the pen 
for the birds to work at, or split beets or mangel wurzels in halves 
and nail them, cut surface outward to the studding of the 




12— WELL VENTILATED HOUSES ARE INDISPENS1BLE 



bances and it is the belief of the writer that nearly all of the 
trouble which has been experienced by those who feed mash 
foods is due to the use of meat and animal fats in the ground 
grain, moist mash mixture. 

A MOIST MASH RATION FOR BREEDING STOCK 

Where it is desired to feed breeding stock according to the 
moist mash method, the following will be found a desirable 
plan for feeding: Scald a quantity of cut or mealed clover or 
alfalfa, sufficient to form one fourth to one-half of the bulk of 
the mash for your flock. Into this stir a mixture of equal parts 
by measure of heavy bran and coarse corn meal or equal parts 
by measure of corn and oat chop and heavy bran. Mix the 
whole into a crumbly mash as dry as possible and feed either 
morning, noon or night, according to the convenience of the 
breeder. When fed at night this mash should be followed by 
a feed of mixed hard grain. Adopt some regular plan of feeding 
and stick to it. If you start with a morning mash, make it 



poultry house, at a convenient height for the birds to pick at. 

A GOOD DRY FOOD RATION FOR BREEDING STOCK 

In the litter use dry grain scratching food consisting of 
the same dry grain mixture mentioned above, or made of 30 
pounds coarse cracked or whole corn; 30 pounds wheat; 30 
pounds barley; 7 pounds kaffir corn, and 3 pounds sunflower 
seed. This should be scattered morning and night in deep litter 
always keeping a sufficient amount of grain in the litter 
so that the birds can find a kernel by scratching for it. Keep 
dry, pure beef scrap constantly before the birds in one compart- 
ment of the food hopper; keep the other compartment of the 
food hopper filled with a dry grain mash mixture made as fol- 
lows: 40 pounds of corn; 20 pounds of barley and 20 pounds 
of wheat ground together to a medium coarse meal, add to this 
20 pounds of heavy bran and mix thoroughly, dry. This 
should be fed dry from the food hopper, never moistened, and 
should be always kept before the birds. 

21 



HATCHABLE EGGS 



GETTING 1 VRYU I- IV.CS-M FRITS OF GREEN FOOD— SELECT THE EGGS— DEFINITE 
RESU1 rS FO] LOW DEFINITE CONDITIONS— THE VALUE OF MEAT AND CUT BONE 



A. F. HUNTER 




S l'HK hat cliiiii; season approaches we shall do 
well tn consider how to got eggs that will pro- 
duce strong, vigorous chicks. It is of little 
advantage to hatch weak, puny chicks. They 
linger along a week or two, then pine and die; 
there is no satisfaction in hatching such chicks, 
and yet. unfortunately, a great many such are 
hatched. If the knowledge requisite to the 
hatching of strong, vigorous chicks was more generally taught, 
and lived up to. the"present chick mortality would be decidely 
-■■ned. and our profits very much increased. 
We use the above title, "hatchable eggs," and use it ad- 
visedly, because thousands and thousands of eggs are put into 
incubators or under hens which never ought to be used at all; 
they will not hatch if incubated, or, if they do hatch, the chicks 
produced will be too weak and puny to live long. The witty 
"Autocrat of the Breakfast Table" was asked when the educa- 
tion of a child should begin, and replied, "twenty years before 
the child is born," and we ought to begin to work for the good, 
hatchable eggs at lca-t a year before the eggs are produced. 
This, of course, means selecting the birds for our future breed- 
ing stock while they are still chicks; their strong, sturdy appear- 
ance at that time plainly indicates strength and vigor of consti- 
tution which will make them hardy and vigorous birds. 

An excellent illustration of the great benefits of strength 
and vigor in the breeding stock is seen in a letter from a Tenn- 
essee poultryman from which we quote: "I give my incuba- 
tor good attention and use only the best eggs, carefully tested 
for good, even shells, and I always set two hens at the same time. 
When I test out the infertile eggs I replace with live eggs from 
under the hens, so that all the eggs left in the machine are strong- 
ly fertile, and it is no wonder to me that I hatch nearly all of 
them. From time to time I compare it precisely, so that when 
hatching time comes the chicks hatch like popping corn. When 
I take off a hatch I do not expect a single chick to die, and they 
rarely ever do. If this sounds to you like bragging let it go at 
that, but the statement is true, that from the last three hatches 
I liave made not a single chick has died. They have been 
raked in brooders, in the dead of winter as well as at other sea- 
sons of the year 

''The suggestion that you make, that I have to incubate 
5,000 eggs a month to market 2,000 broilers a month seems to 
me, in the light of my own experience, simply preposterous. 
You may be right, but give me such hens as I have, let me se- 
lect the eggs, run the incubators and superintend the feeding 
and care of the chicks, and I would not give any one ten cents 
to guarantee me 4,000 broiler chicks from 5,000 eggs. I know 
I should do better than that here in Tennessee. If this sounds 
like fool. • to you, it must be because you have operated 
in the north and raised your chicks in confinement. Mine have 
large runs on blue gr;i and white clover from the time they 
are two week-, old, the year around, and they inherit good con- 
stitutions from parents, raised in like manner, and they just 
.-.imply don't die." 

There is a moral in that story. What a splendid example 

• rengtfa and vigor in the breeding stock, grown from chicks 

that inherited strength and vigor from their parents. Note, 

too, that the egg^-. are "only the best, eggs, carefully tested for 

:, even shells." Far too many of us do not ".select" the 



eggs from which the chicks are hatched, to say nothing of "se- 
lecting" the hens that are to lay the eggsl If however, we are to 
have generations of strong-constitutioned stock we must work 
for it as does our Tennessee friend; we must build up the strength 
and vigor by careful and persistent "selection" for these much 
desired qualities. 

SELECTING THE BREEDERS 

In the winter is a good time to study the birds from which 
we wish to select our next season's breeders, picking out those 
that are most active and vigorous, and that went to laying 
promptly after getting through the molt. The eggs of hens are 
of larger average size and the chicks hatched from hens' eggs are 
(as a rule) larger, stronger and more vigorous, and mature into 
larger and better birds. Select breeders for their strength and 
vigor and from birds that did the best laying in their pullet 
year, then we will have accomplished the one step in the gen- 
eral upbuilding of the strength and vigor of the whole flock. 

Practical poultrymen of large experience agree that the 
prime causes of lack of vigor in the chicks are inbreeding; breed- 
ing from weak and debilitated stock and breeding from imma- 
ture stock. It is easy to avoid all three of these causes of lack 
of vigor in the chicks, and if we give our attention early to se- 
lecting the birds from which we are to raise the following sea- 
son's chicks we shall start in with a great advantage. 

RAISING THE BREEDING STOCK 

Our future breeding birds should be brought up on free 
range, where they can get plenty of fresh air and exercise and 
have plenty of shade when they want it, and should be fed a 
ration which will produce flesh rather than fat so that they grow 
strong, muscular, hardy, and have much reserve strength. 
This stock after being brought into the houses for the winter 
should have plenty of fresh air and abundant exercise. To at- 
tain these things the curtained front scratching shed house is 
desirable and they should be compelled to work and scratch 
for every kernel of grain they eat. Scratching and searching 
quickens the circulation and promotes digestion; in other words, 
it promotes and preserves good health; and such birds, fed a 
well-balanced ration, and breathing sweet, pure, fresh air, will 
produce good, sound eggs, eggs with firm yolks and whites of 
the right constituency and with sound, strong shells, and when 
put in an incubator or under hens, with the hatching conditions 
right the chicks will come out "like popping corn." 

Green food in winter is most essential. When running at 
large in the fields growing pullets eat a very great quantity of 
grass-blades, etc., and when they are brought into the pens of 
the poultry houses they must have green food regularly supplied 
to them, if good health is to be maintained. What this green 
food is depends upon what supplies we have; it may be any 
one of several things or it may be of several kinds. Cut clover 
or alfalfa in the mash are the best articles for this green food 
supply, and fresh cabbages are a close second. Almost any 
kind of vegetables or fruits such as turnips, beets, carrots, 
apples, etc., are good, and the birds eat them greedily. Not 
only do these green foods promote the general health of the 
fowls, but they are economical to feed because they "extend" 
the ration and thus save the consumption of grain and more 
costly foods. 



22 



THE EGG AND ITS GERM 



SELECTING THE EGGS 

Not only should we select the breeding stock, but we should 
'select" the eggs laid by the breeding stock. Do not set an 
egg, even from your best hen, if it is a poor egg; by which we 
mean poorly-shelled, poorly shaped, or otherwise lacking in the 
qualities which make up a good egg. The fancy poultry breed- 
er gives too little heed to the most important points of strength 
and vigor of the chicks, and will use misshapen and poorly shell- 
ed eggs if the hen that laid them is all right — is possibly a first 
prize winner. He is thinking of the fine points of the hen and 
not at all of whether the chicks hatched from those eggs will 
grow up strong, sturdy and vigorous. The practical poultry- 
man, on the contrary, can ignore the show qualities, and should 
consider only the strength and vigor of the offspring. There- 
fore, after we have selected our best breeding birds, paying par- 
ticular attention to the points requisite for constitutional health 



full strength and vigor. Such will produce good chicks if the 
females are right. 

It is sometimes advisable, too, to alternate males in the 
pens. One breeder got 79 per cent hatch from all eggs put in 
his incubators, and one of the methods he employed was to have 
six breeding males for four breeding pens, and keep the males 
moving from pen to pen, each male having one day in each pen 
and two of the males being out resting all the time. There are 
many advantages in such a plan as it prevents the male having 
special favorites among his mates and ignoring others. Of course 
this plan interferes with what is called "special rnatings," but for 
the practical poultry raiser special matings are unnecessary. The 
points for him to consider are strength and vigor of the chicks, 
and to that end he should study the strength and vigor of the 
breeding stock and the conditions which promote the good health 
of that stock, and then aim to produce "good hatchable eggs". 




and vigor, we should reject every egg that is questionable, and 
put in the incubator or under the hens only such as give the best 
promise of producing first quality chicks. 

Undoubtedly the eggs from the year-old hens will produce 
the largest, strongest and most robust chicks, hence, if we are 
aiming at the very best results we will not breed from pullets, 
even though they be a full year old at the breeding season; it 
is much better that they pass through the summer and through 
one molt so that their "staying power" becomes manifest. Not 
infrequently a pullet which is very promising at six or eight 
months old and proves a most excellent layer for a time, develops 
some constitutional weakness, or some defect develops. 

Such illness is good and sufficient evidence of lack of vigor, 
and the manifestation of any lack of vigor should exclude the 
bird from the breeding pen. Be sure that the cockerels put in 
the pens are early hatched and fully matured, with stout, sturdy 
legs and broad backs; in fact, that give abundant evidence of 



FEEDING FRESH CUT BONE 

It has come to be generally understood by poultrymen 
that feeding meat and bone in some form is necessary if we 
would have the chicks thrive and the pullets and hens lay eggs. 
Animal food supplies the food elements which promote growth 
and induce egg production; indeed, the egg shows by analysis 
chemical constituents very similar to those of lean beef, hence 
beef, if we could economically feed it, would give the fowls the 
best food elements for egg production. The analysis of the 
two is substantially as follows: 

Fresh Beef Eggs 

Water •. . .64 74.5 

Protein 14 12.5 

Fat 21 12 

Salts 1 1 

It is impossible to profitably use fresh beef as a food for 
fowls and chicks, but in the waste pieces produced in preparing 



23 



ARTIFICIAL INCl BALING AND BROODING 



animals for human food there :uv several products whii'li fur- 
nish the desired food materials for this purpose. Fresh bone, 
out into p ieo oc sufficiently small is one of the very best of animal 
foods Speaking upon this point a bulletin of the United States 
Department of Agriculture says: "Where fowls are kept in 
confinement it will be necessary to supply some moat food. 
Finely cut fresh bone from the moat markets is one of the best 
it" not the best kind of meat food for laying liens and young 
chickens." The bone should be fresh, and should be freshly 
cut, and this point is especially mentioned in the above bulletin, 
which says: "Tainted bones should be rejected as unfit for 
food." 

In cut fresh bone from the meat market we have one of 



the best, if not the very l>est, of animal foods, and one so mod- 
erate in cost that every keeper of fowls who has facilities for 
procuring the bone cannot afford not to feed it. The manufac- 
turers of bone cutters have carefully studied the conditions of 
bone-cutting, and have given us, in the modern bone cutter, a 
machine which is especially adapted to the turning of this waste 
product into an excellent food for fowls and chicks. Fresh 
bones have to be cut. They cannot be ground unless first cook- 
ed and then dried, which almost wholly extracts the animal 
matter and leaves practically only mineral matter, chiefly lime. 
A good bone cutter will cut the fresh, raw bones, with the at- 
tached pieces of meat, gristle, etc., and make them into a food , 
which promotes growth in chicks and increases egg production. 



WEAK GERMS IN WINTER EGGS 



TESTS CONDUCTED WITH EGGS LAID PREVIOUS TO AND DURING WINTER CONFINE- 
MENT—WARM HOUSING LOWERS VITALITY— EVIL EFFECTS OF STIMULATING FOOD- 
COLD HOUSING GIVES BEST RESULTS— GENEROUS RATIONS DID NOT LESSEN FERTILITY 

A. G. GILBERT 




URIXG the months of March and April for some 
years past | investigation has been made at 
the Canadian Experiment Station with the 
view of discovering, if possible, the cause, or 
causes, of so many weak germs found in eggs 
laid at the latter part of the winter and in 
early spring by hens which were confined to lim- 
ited quarters in the farm' poultry houses. The houses were 
artifically heated to a moderate temperature, varying from 
.30 in cold weather to 50 degrees on mild days. The fowls 
had been gently stimulated to lay, but with no condiment, 
and had laid fairly well. But these eggs when hatched out in 
late March or April by incubator or hens, produced few chick- 
ens. The eggs on being tested showed a fairly satisfactory 
percentage of fertility, but on examination, after the hatch 
was over, a great many chickens were found dead in the 
shell, the majority of them, at the "pipping" stage. 

TESTING STRENGTH OF GERM IN EGGS LAID IN DECEMBER 

With the view of obtaining further data a number of pens 
were mated up on the fowls going into winter quarters. Tests 
heretofore had been made towards the end of the winter season. 
The object of this occasion was to test the fertility and strength 
of germs of eggs laid in December and before the hens had be- 
•come enervated by long laying or confinement. Accordingly 
on December 20, 181 eggs of different breeds (enumerated fur- 
ther on) were placed in an incubator. On the 26th instant 18 
clear eggs (i. e., without germs) and 6 with partially developed 
^erms, were removed. 

On January 1 (eleven days from date of placing eggs in in- 
<mbator,) a further test was made with following results: 

Barred Rocks — 46 eggs showed 69 per cent fertility 

Light Brahma-Barred Rock Cross— 54 eggs showed 90 per 
cent fertility. 

Rhode Island Reds and White Plymouth Rocks — 49 eggs 
showed 61 per cent fertility. 

Buff Leghorns— 8 eggs showed 26 per cent fertility. 

The rapidly developing germs presented a strong and 
healthy appearance. This was confirmed by later examination. 
An unfortunate accident to the incubator two days before the 
chickens were due resulted in the death of all but 26, which, 
however, hatched out apparently strong and healthy. 

, CTED DURING THE WINTER 

Further experimental tests were made with eggs laid from 
time to time during the balance of the season and confirmed 



the conclusions of previous years. These conclusions showed 
that the longer and closer the term of artificial life of the laying 
stock the greater was the weakness of the germs. Experience 
has shown, with no uncertainty, that it is one thing to have a 
high percentage of fertility and another to have results in a 
corresponding number of robust chickens. It is the strong and 
lively chicken which will make rapid growth, that is wanted. 
It has been shown by experiment that the germs in eggs from 
hens closely confined to winter quarters, but laid in spring time, 
although showing a high percentage of fertility, did not result 
in many chickens. The germs had died in different stages of 
development, the greatest number when fully developed, or at 
the "pipping stage." And in many cases the chickens which 
came out proved weaklings. As warranting the foregoing con- 
clusions, the following results of experimental tests are given: 

HATCHING RESULTS IN AN INCUBATOR OF EGGS LAID BY HENS IN 
MODERATELY HEATED HOUSES 

On March 27, 202 eggs of different breeds were placed in 
one of the most reliable incubators on the market. The result 
was 39 chicks. The eggs placed in the incubator were laid pro- 
bably during the third week of the month named, and by hens 
which were kept in artificially but moderately heated compart- 
ments of our poultry houses. The fowls had received generous 
rations with a view to egg production, and had laid fairly well 
for the most part of the previous winter. 

The examination of the unhatched eggs showed that the 
great majority contained chicks fully developed but dead, pre- 
sumably too weak to break their way out of the shell, a very 
discouraging result certainly. Under similar circumstances the 
first conclusion would be, on the part of the inexperienced, to 
blame the incubator. But if it hatched 39 chickens, was it not 
as capable of hatching out more, if germs were as strong in the 
unhatched eggs as in those which produced chicks? 

SIMILAR EGGS UNDER HENS AND RESULTS 

In order to ascertain results with hens as hatching mediums, 
on the same day as the incubator was started, four Faverolle 
hens, which were broody, were given 13 eggs each. The 
eggs were of the same kind and age as those put into the incu- 
bator. 

Of the 52 eggs set, 17 hatched, so that as compared with 
results from the incubator this showing is in favor of the hens, 
but the average experience of several years past does not point 
to much difference between incubator or hen when conditions 
are equally favorable to both. 



24 



THE EGG AND ITS GERM 



RESULTS FROM EGGS LAID BY HENS IN COLD HOUSES 

The above results, it will be borne in mind, are from eggs 
laid by hens which had been kept in warm houses and given 
rations calculated to gently stimulate egg production during 
winter. It will be interesting, then, to compare these results 
with those from hens which had not — nor had their parent 
stock — known what warm winter quarters were, fowls which 
were kept under such conditions as are to be met with in the 
majority of farm yards throughout the country. 

On the 11th of March 13 eggs laid by Buff Orpington pul- 
lets from hardy stock — as described above — were set under a 
B. P. Rock hen. On the 2d of April 10 chickens hatched. On 
eggs being tested, one clear egg was found. Examination of 
the two eggs which did not hatch showed two embryos, which 
had probably died about the fourteenth day after the eggs were 
put under the hen. 

On March 21 (ten days later), 13 eggs, also laid by Buff 
Orpington pullets, were placed under another B. P. Rock hen. 



To farmers, particularly those living in America where the 
winters are rigorous, these results are important, as they are 
strikingly in favor of fresh air and plenty of it, even if it is cold. 

They are doubly important, as giving proof that with in- 
telligent effort it is possible and profitable to build up strains of 
fowls to suit winter conditions, rather than to attempt making 
winter conditions suit the fowls. 

VALUABLE CONCLUSIONS DRAWN AS THE RESULTS 
OF WINTER TESTS 

A summary of the experiences gained in connection with 
the testing and hatching results of eggs laid during the cold 
season under conditions described may be given as follows: 

1. The generous and gently stimulating rations given to 
the fowls kept in cold houses did not seem to affect the strength 
of the germs of the eggs laid by them, as similar rations appar- 
ently did in the case of the hens kept in artificially warmed 
quarters. 




14— COLONY HOUSES ON GRASS RANGE 



On the 11th of April, 11 chickens hatched; one chick was crush- 
ed in the nest by the hen. Examination of the remaining egg 
showed a fully developed chick dead about "pipping" time. 

On March 21 (same day), 13 eggs of Buff Orpington pullets 
were given to a Langshan hen. Result, 11 chicks. 

The most convincing results were obtained from 16 eggs 
(half Buff Orpington and half B. P. Rock pullets), which on 
March 9 were placed under a large hen, and in due course every 
egg hatched. And what was further satisfactory, every one of 
the 16 chickens lived and made rapid growth. 

The total of 48 chickens from 55 eggs laid by pullets, which 
had been kept in cold winter quarters — as had their parent 
stock — and which had been good winter layers, is in favorable 
contrast with 17 chickens from 52 eggs laid by fowls which had 
been kept in artificially warmed poultry houses. 

It is also an effectual answer to the statement, sometimes 
made, that strong germs cannot he had in early spring time 
from hens which have laid steadily during the winter. 



2. Eggs laid in early December by the hens in artifici- 
ally warmed houses showed a greater percentage of strong germs 
than did eggs laid by them later in the season. 

3. Eggs laid by the same hens in early spring showed a 
satisfactory percentage of fertility, but the weakest germs. 

4. The most striking and gratifying results were obtain- 
ed from the fowls which, like their parent stock, had never 
known warm quarters. From 55 eggs laid by these fowls in 
early spring — after laying well during the winter — 48 strong 
chickens were hatched. In contrast witb this are 17 chickens 
from 52 eggs laid by hens kept in warmed, but comparatively 
limited quarters. 

5. Results were strongly in favor of the average farm 
conditions. One successful farmer has an open shed attached 
to his poultry house, and to this shed, which is protected by a 
curtain in stormy weather, his fowls have access, so obtaining 
fresh air and exercise. The latter is secured by throwing grain 
in litter which is always on the floor of the shed. 



25 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING 



FERTILITY IN EGGS 

GREEN FOOD NECESSARY ro FERTILITY— 
VIGOR AND GROWTH OF CHICKS DEPEND 

I TON VIGOR AND HEALTH OF PARENTS 

C. A. HI" I.BERT 

IN ORDER to understand the requirements of artificial 
incubation we shall need to tirst consider the observed 
(acts in relation to the natural process. A late spring 
obstructs the fertility of the eggs for early hatching un- 
less a store of vegetable food was put away for winter use. 

Hens that are steady layers 
are very liable to disappoint 
the owner in the matter of fer- 
tile eggs in the spring. It will 
be found that not one egg 
in a dozen will hatch. Later, 
after the same hens have 
been given a daily run, and 
have picked the fresh grass 
no fault will be found on the 
ground of fertility. Hens need 
green food in the spring more 
than any other creature on the 
farm. During the season for 
selling eggs for hatching we 
hear more or less complaint 
about rotten eggs. Begin- 
ners are apt to believe that a 
rotten egg is an infertile egg and 
that it must have been old be- 
fore shipping. On the other 
hand, a rotten egg is good proof 
that it was fertile, but the germ 
not being strong, it soon died 
after the heat of the hen or the 
incubator started to develop it. 
The truth is that eggs do not 
become rotten when there is no 
male bird with the layers. 
They merely dry up. An egg not 
impregnated will come out from 
under a hen at the end of three 
weeks' incubation perfectly 
clear, while one that is impreg- 
nated if sat on forty eight hours and then taken out will at the 
end of three weeks be of bad odor. 

When an egg that has never been in an incubator is broken 
the albumen adheres closely together and does not run over so 
large a surface. An infertile egg placed under the heat of 103 
degrees for one week will in appearance and taste be equal to a 
fertile one that has been laid away for two weeks. 

Just why some chicks outgrow some others when the con- 
ditions are apparently the same is a question that, is hard to 
net. There are, however, several reasons which may be 
assigned as a cause for this lack of growth in the early days of 
a chick, the main one being lack of vitality and vigorous const i- 
tution of the parent bird. 

It may appear to some that if these conditions exist at one 
stage of the hatching season they would also prevail at others, 
but that is not necessarily the case. Much of the vigorous 

rth of a chick or the reverse depends upon the condition of 
the parent fowl at the time the egg was laid, which is the begin- 
ning of the chick's growth. In view of this fact attention must 
be paid to the health fulness and vigor of the flock from which 
the eggs are gathered for incubating purposes. 

Then again much depends upon the condition under which 



the eggs are incubated. Good sound eggs laid by vigorous 
stock should when properly incubated bring forth chicks that 
with correct handling should grow right from the start; but the 
treatment, feeding and conditions surrounding the chick dur- 
ing its early life have a great deal to do with its rapid and vig- 
orous growth. 

We must observe all these facts; employ every agency at 
our command; see that right conditious exist; use nothing but 
strong, well developed parents, and if proper care is given the 
youngsters we will reap the reward of our labor in dollars and 
cents. 




15— AN INTERESTING FAMILY 
The photograph from which the above half-tone was made was taken in Australia. 



CONDITIONING BREEDING STOCK 

SELECT BREEDERS WITH REGARD TO VIG- 
OR-SUPPLY FOOD AND CONDITIONS RE- 
QUISITE TO SUCCESS -WINTER FEEDING 

H. A. NOURSE 

THE problem of conditioning breeding birds is by no means 
a difficult or intricate one. Any poultryman wor- 
thy the name selects each season birds of the devel- 
opment and style that denote vigor and constitution, 
while selecting the shape required for the variety in hand. It 
is a fact that birds of standard size and shape are not pro- 
duced year after year by any but healthy, vigorous stock and 
the breeder cannot avoid protecting the constitution of his 
strain when following the course necessary to produce good 
representatives of his variety. Constitutional vigor is the 
source of strong procreative power and is built up only by 
careful breeding for a term of years. 

With this characteristic well established it remains only to 
maintain good health and normal condition of flesh to produce 



26 



THE EGG AND ITS GERM 



eggs which will bring forth chicks that will live, thrive and make 
a profit. In this connection it is safe to remember that appear- 
ance, although a good indicator of health, is by no means infal- 
lible and a bird may be in the best condition, apparently, yet un- 
able to produce a fertile egg. Supply the food and conditions 
required and trust to nothing less, whatever the appearances, 
to bring about the desired results. 

Every effort should be made to conserve the energy and 
maintain the strength during the winter when conditions are 
largely artificial. This does not mean that all profit from the 
birds in a practical way must be lost or that a hen may not lay 
well during the winter and produce strong, fertile eggs in the 
spring. It is only necessary to build up day by day the vitality 
which egg production tears down, that the hen shall not be the 
loser. The best rule to follow during the winter is this: pro- 
vide as well as possible the exercise, fresh air and foods that 
the hen would get if allowed her freedom on a grass range in 
summer. 

Of these, exercise is the most difficult to obtain. The dry 
grain may be fed in the scratching material and the methods of 
dry feeding now becoming popular enable the feeder to get the 
most exercise for the grain fed. As the hen cannot range wide, 
she must dig deep and the scratching material upon the floors 
therefore should be deep and frequently renewed to keep it 
light and clean. 

Fresh air is easy to obtain and costs nothing; yet it is rig- 
idly excluded from some poultry houses where the moisture 
from the birds' breath, condensing upon the cold walls of the 
building, keeps the interior damp and the fowls unhealthy and 
the caretaker condemns the house as unfit, and the birds as deli- 
cate. But let the windows on the south side be opened wide 
whenever the temperature outside is not below twenty-five de- 
grees above zero, Fahr., or open less in proportion as the cold 
increases and the moisture will disappear as fast as it collects, 
leaving the house dry and comfortable. 

In severely cold weather or when winds drive snow or rain 
into the house, light frames filled with cotton cloth may be fit- 
ted into the space made by dropping or raising a window a few 




16— CHICKS FEEDING FROM A HOPPER 



inches, admitting plenty of fresh air, but preventing a draft. 
The use of these frames will make it unnecessary to entirely 
close the house even in the coldest weather- There is but little 
danger from the cold so long as the birds are at work and exer- 
cise not obtained in fresh air loses half its value. 

These are important factors. Feed as carefully and as 
scientifically as you may, you cannot achieve success without 
them. 

We cannot lay down a rule for feeding. What will pro- 
duce good results in one yard will not always do so in another, 
because of varying conditions. Sufficient information upon the 
feeding values of all commercial foods and their effects upon 
the birds under various conditions has been published so that a 
little experience and intelligent observation will enable one to 
compound the ration best adapted for his use. 

The problem of supplying green food in cold weather has 
been practically eliminated; clover and alfalfa cured green, and 
mangel wurzels and cabbage may be had throughout the winter 
and furnish the required elements in an acceptable form. 

Birds constitutionally strong, provided with the foods and 
surrounded by the conditions intended for them by nature will 
produce offspring that will live and thrive. 



VIGOROUS STOCK: GOOD HATCHES 

J. B. HEABERLIN 

IT SEEMS to be a very hard matter for an amateur or any 
one for that matter, who has had no experience in 
the poultry business to believe anything but that an 
"egg is an egg" and should hatch a good, strong chick, 
not for a moment considering whence it came, and this 
very ignorance is what causes most of the complaints against 
good incubators. The writer is fully aware that there are 
some incubators on the market that would not hatch anything 
but trouble, for he has had this sad experience with a machine 
that turned out more egg fertilizer than chicks. 

But that was years ago and I have fully recovered 
and further wish to say that I did not become discouraged 
and conclude that no one could do any better than I. I 
said to myself, the papers are full of advertisers who are 
doing all their hatching with incubators, therefore it can be 
done, and I am going to be one of them, for the novelty 
of hatching chicks artifically was just what tempted me to 
enter the business. The next month I found an article 
from the pen of one of our shining lights in the poultry 
world, giving the per centage he had hatched in incubators 
during the season just closed. I wrote him asking what 
make of machines he was using and also remarked that any 
information he would give me in the matter would be 
highly appreciated. 

I received a prompt reply, giving me the information 
asked for, and he said: "Be sure that your breeding stock is 
healthy and vigorous and properly mated, and you will have 
no trouble." That set me to thinking. I went out into my 
chicken yard and sat down on a stump and began to scru- 
tinize my " flock in general. Now, right then and there it 
dawned upon me that one must know his fowls or he 
doesn't know his business. I then began to get better ac- 
quainted with my chickens and about the time I got 
pretty well acquainted with them I found out that I had 
no chickens worth breeding. 

I must admit I felt somewhat discouraged, but I 
straightway passed a resolution in my mind resolving to 
get into the right pew. The next spring I bought first-class 
stock and eggs from the very best breeders in the country 
and with hard work and perseverance I have learned to know 
a good bird when I see it, and that when good birds are 



27 



ARTllk'lAl IMTIUTINO AND BROODING 



properly matted the hatching of their eggs is more play. But 
before 1 close, 1 want to say tori ho benefit of those concern- 
ed thai 1 placed 230 eggs in my incubator and on the four- 
teenth day I tasted oul eighteen. On the twenty-first day I 
took out 1 71? White Hook chicks and 1 raised every ehick to 
maturity except one— an 85 per cent, hatch. 1 have had 
other hatches just as good, but generally lose some before 
maturity. 

HELP FOR BEGINNERS 

CONDIMENTS ARK INJURIOUS— THE PROPER DIET 
FOR BREEDING FOWLS TO INSURE FERTILE EGGS 

W. H. HARDIN 

WE CANNOT hope to get strong, vigorous chicks, 
whether hatched artificially or by the natural 
method, unless our breeding stock is in the best 
possible condition. After years of experimenting 
the writer has become convinced that it is a mistake to 
feed condiments to any kind of breeding stock. In fact I 
do not believe in feeding these so-called egg-producing for- 
mulas even to laying stock from which eggs are to be sold for 
market purposes, as they simply irritate the egg producing or- 
gans and are sure to prove a detriment to your fowls sooner 
or later. Rather should you endeavor to improve the laying 
power of your flock by breeding each year from your best 
la3 r ers of the previous year. Such a method systematically 
carried out year after year will be sure to bring your fowls 
up to a high state of productiveness, which will be more satis- 
factory and it can be done without undue forcing. 

I have had frequent inquiries from poultry keepers and 
the managers of two state experiment stations, asking for a 
proper diet for breeding fowls to insure a high percentage of 
fertility. 

The feeding of fowls to bring about this desirable result is 
a question that has given many of us more or less trouble in 
times past, especially during the early spring when the fowls 
must be confined to their houses the greater portion of the time 
on account of bad weather. While I do not say that my meth- 
od is perfection, yet it is one that I have adopted after carefully 
studying and experimenting, and it is giving me satisfactory 
results. 

FEEDING FOR FERTILITY 

To begin with, I feed only twice daily. I do not consid- 
er it good policy to feed fowls three times a day. The work- 
ing meal of the day is whole grain, which is fed every morning 
as soon after daylight as possible, and it consists of a mixture 



of wheat and coarsely cracked corn. One quart of this mixture 
is allow oil to every twelve fowls and it is scattered in the litter 
of the scratching sheds, the floors of which are kept covered to 
the depth of six to eight inches. It takes the birds the better 
part of the day to find all these grains when they are well buried 
in the litter, which gives them plenty of exercise, and exercise 
they must have if you want fertile eggs and plenty of them. 
The working hen is almost invariably a good laying hen. 

The evening meal is a mash of milling products, animal and 
vegetable food mixed by measure as follows: 

Good wheat bran, two parts. 

Ground oats, one part. 

Second crop cut clover, two parts. 

Corn meal, one part. 

Best quality beef scrap, one part. 

This soft mash is prepared by first putting into the feed 
bucket the proper quantity of cut clover, adding a small quan- 
tity of salt, or in other words, seasoning it about as you would 
for your own palate. Next we pour on the boiling water, cover- 
ing the vessel and allowing it to stand half an hour or so and 
then add the other ingredients. Mix well to a crumbly consis- 
tency (not sloppy), and feed warm. There can be no fixed rule 
about the proper quantity to feed, as no two flocks will eat the 
same amount. However, I make it a rule to feed my birds 
just what they will eat up readily in from ten to fifteen min- 
utes, being careful to remove any food that is not eaten, be- 
cause if it is allowed to remain in the feed troughs it will sour 
and is liable to sicken the fowls. 

Fresh, pure water should be kept before them all the time. 
The fowls can not be good layers if their water supply is stinted. 
Perhaps many of you have noticed that your hens that drink 
freely are generally the best layers. Be careful to keep the 
water vessels scrupulously clean. I make it a rule to scald 
mine two or three times a week. Bear in mind that filthy drink^ 
ing vessels and filthy water are prolific sources of disease among 
poultry. Fowls that are confined to yards should have access 
to plenty of good, sharp grit at all times. They cannot be 
healthy without it. Ground oyster shell is also very healthful 
in many ways. During the winter and early spring I try to 
keep green food, such as cabbage, mangels, beets, etc., before 
my birds at all times. It is not only a great relish to them, but 
it assists in keeping their systems in good tone. 

Twice a week I omit the beef scrap from the soft mash 
and on those days I feed instead a liberal quantity of green cut 
bone in the proportion of about one ounce to each fowl. They 
are extremely fond of it and it is one of the best natural egg pro- 
ducers that can be fed, and it assists wonderfully in the matter 
of fertility of the eggs, especially during the winter and early 
spring before the insects come. 




28 



INCUBATOR AND BROODING HOUSES 




MODERN INCUBATOR HOUSES 



DETAILS AND PLANS OF INCUBATOR HOUSE THAT IS MODEL OF CONVENIENCE- 
SAVING TIME OF OPERATOR— MATERIALS REQUIRED FOR INCUBATOR HOUSE— THE 
INCUBATOR CELLAR — SMALL INCUBATOR HOUSE — HOW CONSTRUCTED, ETC. 



While any piece of machinery will perform its destined work for 
a time under sudden severe changes of temperature, exposed to damp- 
ness and inclement weather, still anything made of wood and metal 
is necessarily perishable and it shows good sense for us to operate any 
machine under the most favorable conditions possible. To obtain the 
best results with an incubator, we should place it in the best location 
possible. 

Everyone cannot build an incubator cellar for one or two machines, 
but each can use common sense in locating the machines in a well ven- 
tilated cellar room, and with the aid of a thermometer keep the sur- 
rounding temperature from varying many degrees. Do not put the 
machines in the attic in the summer nor in an unhealed out-house in 
the dead of winter. 

You may get an excellent hatch under the most adverse condition, 
but you are unfair to the machine and its manufacturer. — Editor. 



HILE many illustrations of incubator cellars or 
houses have been published from time to time, 
we do not recall that any plans have ever been 
offered which showed a dark room for testing 
eggs. 

The incubator house shown in accompanying 
plans, was designed by Dr. P. T. Woods, and a 
house of this pattern is now in successful 
operation at the Millville Poultry Farm. 

On all plants where a considerable number of machines 
are run, the testing of eggs becomes an item of considerable 
labor and consumes a large amount of time. If this testing has 
to be done at night, it lengthens the hours for the poultryman 
so much that during the hatching season he loses a great deal 
of much needed rest, whereas if some means are provided for 
testing the eggs during the day, there are usually odd moments 




when the work can be done without interference with the reg- 
ular routine of the plant. It was for this purpose of saving night 
work on the poultry farm that the incubator house with dark 
room was devised. This house, or more properly, half-cellar, 
is a frame building built above a brick foundation, a slight ex- 
cavation being made and a 2 feet 6 inch or 3 feet brick wall 
built, against which the earth is banked up on the outside and 
on which the sills of the frame building are laid. 

The sills are laid in cement to make a tight joint. The sides of 
the building are sheathed with rabbeted pine boards laid length- 
wise on both sides of the studs. The lower board reaches be- 
low the sill and laps over brick work to avoid draughts. 

The roof is of rough boards laid on rafters which are placed 
2 feet apart and is covered with a good quality of shingles. 

These rafters and frame are afforded additional support 
by tie beams, as indicated in plan. (111. 18.) 

The nine windows of the building are all double windows, 
the outer windows being hinged at the top, the inner ones 
hinged at the bottom, so that they may be opened as shown 
in plan (111. 18). The space beneath the roof is not ceiled in, 
the portion between the rafters and tie beams being left open 
so that the air from the windows may be deflected up against 
the roof. In such a building the windows may be left open on 
both sides of the building, affording excellent ventilation and 
at the same time not permitting any direct draught to blow 
upon the machines. The large door in the end of the building 
is provided with double doors, the inner one having ventilating 
holes as shown in 111. 18. The house is 59 feet long by 21 feet 
wide and 7 feet 6 inches from the floor to eaves, inside measure- 
ment. The floor is made of cement or hard packed gravel. 

The dark room is 6 by 8 feet and is ceiled up with matched 
boards to the rafters. It is provided with a wide door,which 
for purposes of ventilation is best made of a stout frame cov- 
ered with burlap or bran sacking. In one end of the room 



29 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING 






I J 



w///////////mm 



17— GROUND PLAN OF CELLAR FOR TEN LARGE INCUBATORS 



there should be two shelves, one just high enough to place the 
egg tester on, and have the eggs come in direct line with the eye 
when the operator is seated on an ordinary high stool, and he 
will be able to pass the eggs before the light very rapidly. 

The second shelf should be beneath this and should be of 
sufficient size to accommodate two incubator trays, one full and 
one empty, and a basket having two compartments, one for in- 
fertile eggs and one for dead germs. It is very little trouble to 
furnish a dark room in an incubator cellar, in this manner and 
the expense is small. Such a room should be ventilated by a 
hinged window, the glass of which has been painted black or has 
a black cloth tacked over it. It is surprising what an amount 
of labor such a room, properly equipped, will save in course of 
a season in running a number of incubators. Provision can also 
be made for testing by aid of direct or reflected sunlight by 
having in the outer window a special pane fitted, with an opening 
like that in the egg tester and a mirror arranged outside the build- 
ing to reflect the rays of the sun. The writer ran twenty large 
machines in an incubator cellar equipped with a dark room as 
above described and by keeping a careful record of the time 
spent in the incubator cellar he was surprised to find that, after 
doing all the work required, rilling the lamps, trimming them 
attending to the regulation of the machines, filling the machines' 
turning the eggs, testing them and everything necessary from 
starting the eggs until the chicks were ready to be taken to the 
the brooders, the average time required per machine was not 
over ten minutes per day. 

Other useful furniture in the incubator cellar which made 
it possible to handle the machines so easily, was a plain pine 
board table and a five-gallon oil can having a quick 
flow, easily controlled spigot. This table was 
placed in the centre of the incubator cellar. 111. 16. 
The machines were rights and lefts, ar- 
ranged along the sides of the room 
which was a little over 50 feet 
in length. The lamps of the 
machines at one end of the 
table were quickly filled and 
trimmed by carrying them to 
the table one at a time, the oil 
can rating on the end nearest 
the operator, then the can was 
transferred to the opposite end 
of the table and the lamps of 

iachines on that end were 
cared for. :,. mall 

matter, yet it proved to be the 
mean* of saving a considerable 
amount of labor. The lamps 



being carried to the table to be filled could 
then be set on a firm surface for cleaning, 
which was quickly accomplished by 
means of a pocket knife and a soft 
cloth. With a cement floor and the 
table on rollers or small wheels it would be 
still more convenient. 

Such an incubator house will be 
found a most satisfactory style to run, it 
being easy to have perfect ventilation at 
all times and very little difficulty in keep- 
ing the heat at an even temperature even 
in warm weather. The building in use 
at Millville is giving very satisfactory 
results and excellent hatches have been 
obtained when the temperature outside 
the building registered close to 100 de- 
grees for days at a time. 

INCUBATOR CELLAR 

All things considered, the cellar shown herewith is one of 
the best that has been devised for the purpose. The tem- 
perature keeps very even and there is just enough natural 
moisture in the air to give the best results. To build it requires 
an excavation 3 feet deep and the building of a wall 5 feet high 
with an additional 2 feet of wood work above it. Bank the 
earth up against the wall so as to make the cellar 5 feet deep. 

The door is in one end of the building and the stairs are 
inside so that they are safe from the weather. Four cellar 
windows are used on each side and are double glass, being placed 
on each side of the window frame. The inside of the room of 
the cellar is ceiled with matched stuff. The ceiling runs inside 
of plate up studs and rafters to a point 10 feet from the floor, 
where it crosses on the tie beams. The roof,ends and sides may 
be either shingled or papered. In such an incubator cellar it 
is well to have the incubators lefts and rights for greater con- 
venience in the care of them. 

MATERIALS REQUIRED FOR 36-FOOT INCUBATOR CELLAR 

Sills and Plates — 4 pieces 2 by 6, 14 feet; 16 pieces 2 by 6, 
12 feet 

Rafters — 38 pieces 2 by 6, 16 feet. 
Collar-beams and Ties — 24 pieces 1 by 6, 16 feet. 
Roof Boards — 1,300 feet, No. 1 barn siding. 
Sides and Ends — 400 feet matched stuff. 




IS— SECTIONAL VIEW SHOWING VENTILATING SYSTEM 
30 



INCUBATOR AND BROODING HOUSES 



Ceiling — 1,- 
400 feet, f ceil 
ing. 

Shingles — 
12 thousand. 

P a p e r — 3 
rolls, 500 square 
ieet each. 

One door, 5 
feet 6 inches by 
•6 feet 6 inches. 

Eight win- 
dows, 3 lights 
9 by 13. 



N 



T 



3. 



59' 



20— GROUND 
SMALL INCUBATOR HOUSES 

Incubator houses are best made in half cellars, and when 
possible should be put up early in the season on dry, high ground. 

It is often desirable to hatch late in the spring or even in 
the summer, and a house entirely above ground then gets too 
warm for the best work. With a half cellar the air strikes the 
walls, which the outer ground keeps cool, and the temperature 
■can be kept down to 60 or 65 degrees, excepting in the very 
-warmest weather. A row of windows is placed on either side 




19— SECTIONAL VIEW OF SINGLE INCUBATOR CELLAR 



PLAN FOR LARGE INCUBATOR CELLAR 

well up toward the ceiling, so that a window can be opened on 
either side of the house to afford ventilation without a draught 
striking the machines. 

In 111. 19 we present a sectional view of a single incubator 
cellar which can be made to hold from six to twelve or four- 
teen incubators. 111. 17 shows the ground plan arranged for 
ten large incubators. The house should be 12 feet 6 inches in 
the clear on the inside by 25 feet in length. If it is desirable to put 
up a house for only six incubators it will need to be only 15 feet 
in length. A large incubator practically takes up 5 feet of room. 

The incubator house should set 3 feet in the ground with 
a 2 foot banked wall above, making 5 feet in all under ground. 

There should be 8 feet head room from the floor to the plates 
or ceiling. Do not build a lower ceiling, as a lower room will 
not give sufficient cubic feet of air space to allow the air to be 
kept fresh. 

MATERIAL REQUIRED FOR 20-FOOT SINGLE INCUBATOR HOUSE 

24 pieces 2 by 6, 10-foot hemlock for rafters. 
16 pieces 2 by 4, 16-foot hemlock for collars. 

10 pieces 2 by 4, 12-foot hemlock for studding. 

650 feet hemlock for sheathing. 

3,600 shingles, or five rolls roofing paper. 

200 feet siding. 

4 windows. 

400 feet matched ceiling. 

10,000 brick. 

10 barrels lime. 

10 loads sand. 






Mmw*t 







*r 






31 



A SUCCESSFUL BROODER HOUSE 

\ Sl\ PEN BROODER HOUSE THAT WAS THOROUGHLY TESTED AT THE CONNECTICUT 
\C.RUTI rURAl EXPERIMENT STATION— A DEPRESSED ALLEYWAY MAKES IT POSSI- 
BLE FOR OPERATOR VO \T1TNP PO BROODERS AND LAMPS WITHOUT STOOPING 



F. H. STONEBURN 



Th:, partly taken from a bulletin published by the Starrs 

ral College of Connecticut. The author, Mr. F. //. Stone- 
as Jor three years in charge of the practical poultry work car- 
ta l>y the College, but later resigned his position to become director 
of the Columbia School of Poultry Culture. — Editor. 

fHE arrangements for artificial brooding are of as 
great importance as the equipment of any other 
branch of the poultry farm. Adult fowls, vigor- 
ous and well protected by nature, may survive 
and even thrive under adverse conditions, but 
the tiny chicks must have careful treatment. 
The importance of the brooder house is em- 
phasized when we consider that everyone engaged 
in commercial poultry keeping desires to produce a large pro- 
portion of his annual crop of chickens at some time of 
the year other than the natural breeding season of his 
fowls. This is true whether the main object be the pro- 
duction of meat or of eggs. Fall-hatched chicks are 
carried through the winter to be sold in the spring as roasters; 
winter-hatched chicks are marketed as early broilers; while the 
early spring-hatched stock is either marketed at the broiler age 
or carried to maturity to be used as breeders or egg producers. 
The production of any large amount of this out-of-season stock 
by natural methods of rearing is, of course, out of the question, 
and the incubator and the brooder must be relied upon largely. 
The facilities for brooding the chicks vary according to the needs 
and resources of the different owners, ranging from a jug of hot 
water in a tight box to the huge pipe-system brooder houses 
found upon the leading poultry plants. But, unfortunately, in 
too many cases these brooding systems are inadequate, being 
poorly designed or improperly constructed. As a result the 
mortality among chicks entrusted to them is so excessive that 
it cuts down the profits materially. In fact, observation leads 
one to believe that the greatest source of loss on the average 
poultry plant is to be found in the heavy mortality among chicks 
under two months of age. 

A brooder building designed for the rearing of chicks during 
the cold months should embody several distinct features. For 
the health and well-being of the chicks it should be so constructed 
that the temperature and ventilation can be absolutely controll- 
ed, plenty of sunshine admitted, and enemies of all kinds kept 
out. For the comfort of the attendant and the economical con- 
duct of the business it should be convenient in every way. Under 
this latter head are grouped many factors, because convenience 
in this ease must include caring for the lamps and hovers, feed- 



ing and watering the chicks, managing the doors and windows, 
and keeping the house in a thoroughly sanitary condition. It 
is the object of this article to describe briefly a building which 
seems to embody most of the requirements enumerated above. 

It was decided best to use small lamp brooders in each pen, 
as this enables the attendant to manage each pen of chicks in- 
dependently of the rest. For the above reason the plan should 
commend itself to those who are in the business on a compara- 
tively small scale, as well as to the large operator who feels the 
need of a nursery brooder where the hover temperature can be 
regulated according to the needs of each pen of chicks. 

The house is built 15 by 30 feet in size, with a 4 by 5 feet 
extension on the east side. This latter is used as an entry or 
"ante-room," permitting the poultryman to pass in and out of 
the house at will during bad weather without exposing the 





21— A SUCCESSFUL BKOODEB HOI I 



22— CROSS SECTION OF BROODER HOUSE 



chicks to draughts. An alley-way 4 feet in width extends along 
the entire north side, and the rest of the floor space is divided 
into pens. They are six in number and are 5 by 11 feet in size. 
An examination of the accompanying cuts will show that 
the vital feature of the building is the elevated chick floor, the 
latter being 3 feet 6 inches above the former. This arrangement 
secures several advantages. It enables the attendant to care 
for the brooders and feed the chicks without the constant stoop- 
ing required where the brooders are operated upon the floor in 
the usual manner. Further, it reduces the enclosed air space 
by fully one third, effecting a corresponding saving in the amount 
of heat required to maintain a given temperature. It also 
places the chicks nearer the ceiling — the warmest part of the 
room — thus giving them the benefit of all the available warmth. 
Repeated tests in the house under discussion demonstrated 
that in cold weather the temperature at the 
level of the alley floor is 14 degrees lower than 
at the chick floor but 3 feet 6 inches above. 
And finally, the amount of side wall exposed 
to the weather is reduced one-half, quite a con- 
sideration in wind-swept positions. The disad- 
vantage of the plan becomes evident only when 
it is found necessary to enter the pens for any 
purpose. It is inconvenient because of the 
necessary climb to enter the pen and the con- 
fined space in which to do the work. It has, 
however, been found unnecessary to get into 



32 



INCUBATOR AND BROODING HOUSES 




23— SECTION OF BROODER HOUSE SHOWING SOUTH SIDE OF ALLEYWAY 



the pens except on rare occasions, so this is not a serious 
draw back. 

The site selected for this house is a knoll sloping slightly 
to the north and abruptly to the east. The alley was formed 
by digging a trench of the required depth along the north side 
of the site of the proposed structure. Parallel stone walls 4 
feet apart were then laid in this trench and carried to a height 
of 3 feet 6 inches. These were joined by a wall of the same 
height at the west end, the east end being reserved as a doorway. 
When laying the wall on the south side of the alley, provision 
was made for three lamp pits, each 2 feet 6 inches by 5 feet 
and 1 foot in depth, as indicated upon the plans. Each pit ac- 
commodates the heaters of two brooders. 

The rest of the foundation is a simple wall varying in height 
according to the slope of the land, but carried to the same level 
as the alley wall. Finally the entire floor was cemented, in- 
cluding the bottoms of the lamp pits, the cement in the chick 
pens being at the level of the top of the foundation walls. 

Because of the small size of the building, the 
frame is constructed entirely of 2 by 4 inch mate- 
rial, except the sills, which are 4 by 4 inches. 
The walls are 3 feet 6 inches in height. The roof 
is an even span, with a rise of 2 feet. The 
rafters are tied with collar beams which are spiked 
on level 7 feet 6 inches from the alley floor. The 
entire frame is covered with J-inch matched boards, 
with one-ply Flintkote upon the roof and an extra 
heavy felt upon the sides. This gives an absolute- 
ly wind-proof structure. Eaves-troughs are requir- 
ed to carry from the roof the water which might otherwise 
make its way into the building. 

The interior is lathed and plastered with fire proof asbestos 
plaster. By carrying the plaster across on the collar beams an 
attic is formed which is of great value in controlling the tempera- 
ture, preventing direct radiation through the roof. A large 
sliding ventilator opens into this attic through the ceiling above 
each pair of chick pens, and in each gable doors are placed, open- 
ing into the attic from outside. These are regulated according 
to the weather. This forms a decidedly effective ventilating 
system which is entirely under control. 

In the south side of the building are six windows, one for 
each pen, each a single sash with six panes of 10 by 12 inch glass. 



These windows are hinged at the bottom and 
swing inward, being controlled from the alley 
by cords. At the west end of the alley another 
window of the same size is placed. This lights 
the alley thoroughly, which is very desirable, par- 
ticularly on dark, winter days. Chick doors are 
6 by 7 inches in size, and are also operated by 
cords. The construction of pen partitions is 
so fully illustrated by the cuts that no further 
explanation seems necessary. The door is 

made nearly as wide as the alley to permit the 
easy passage of wheelbarrows for cleaning. 

The brooders were constructed by the col- 
lege carpenter. They consist simply of the 
heaters and hovers mounted upon platforms, 
no sides or top being required. Because the heaters are 
suspended in the lamp pits, the floors of the brooders are 
elevated but 2 inches above the floors of the pens, which enables 
the chicks to enter the hovers without climbing the usual bridge. 
The pen floors are kept covered with 1 inch of sand and more 
or less fine litter, such as chaff, cut straw, etc. In ordinary 
weather the six lamps maintain the temperature sufficiently 
high, but an auxiliary heater is supplied for use in extreme cold. 
This is a stove placed near the west end of the alley, and a small 
fire in it will keep the building sufficiently warm at any time. 
For the needs of the practical farmer or poultryman some 
slight change might be made in the above plan. The alley 
could be reduced to 3 feet in width, and still be large enough 
to accommodate one attendant. The length of the chick pens 
might be reduced 1 or 2 feet, thus making the building narrow- 




25— WEST ELEVATION OF BROODER HOUSE 



er. The depth of the alley might be made 3 feet instead of 3 
feet 6 inches, and the sides made of heavy plank instead of 
masonry. The cement floor could be replaced with an earth 
floor, provided rats could be repeUed. The entry extension 
could be dispensed with. For ordinary uses in southern New 
England the wall might be satisfactory if constructed of two 
thicknesses of inch boards with paper between. All of the above 
changes would result in a financial saving so far as the first cost 
of the building is concerned, but, excepting the reduction in 
width of alley, they would also cause a decreased efficiency. 

Not infrequently poult rymen have attempted to secure the 

benefits to be gained from an elevated chick floor in the brooder 

house by constructing board floors at various heights. In some 

instances the brooders have been set upon tables 

rand passage ways left open at each side of the build- 
ing, one permitting the attendant to care for the 
lamp, clean the brooder, etc., and the other to feed 
and water the chicks in the pens. Such arrange- 

\ ments have proved to be quite satisfactory, but are 

\ expensive and have one very decided disadvantage, 

namely, it is impossible to give the chicks an outside 
run unless they are compelled to climb to an eleva- 
tion of 2 or 3 feet when retur ning to the brooder. 
Every experienced poultryman will understand how 



24— SOUTH ELEVATION OF BROODER HOUSE 



33 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING 



impracticable this is. [he hillside brooder house, 
however, permits the chicks to step righl out at 
the ground level, there being no bridges to elitnb. 
1: is evident that a slight slope to the north is 
the best location for a house of this kind, if it is 
desired to have the house face the south. How- 
ever, either an east or west slope can be utilized 
if a small amount of grading is done. It is im- 
perative that the site be well drained, otherwise 
water will collect in the depressed alleyway. It 
might be possible to erect a building of this kind 
upon perfectly level ground by digging a trench 
of sufficient size to serve as the alleyway if 
ample drainage could be provided by laying a line 
of tile to some lower point. Of course, under 
these conditions, steps would have to be used 
which would not be as convenient as having an 
entrance upon the level as in the building de- 
scribed above. 

Since this bulletin has appeared I have re- 
ceived several letters containing questions about 
the house, and I will mention one or two matters 
not fully- touched upon in the bulletin. Kindly 
refer to the illustration "Section showing south 
side of alleyway.'' The lamp boxes suspended in 
lamp pit (c) occupy' but a part of it, allowing 
ample circulation of air around the boxes. Lamp 
fumes are permitted to escape into the alley through 
the openings in the corners of the lamp boxes; one of these 
can be seen at the upper right hand corner of the box (b). 
The "clean out" doors (a) are directly behind the hover and are 
hinged at the bottom. These drop down and permit the attend- 
ant to clean the brooder very conveniently. The wire netting 
above these "clean out" doors is securely tacked in place. As 
each pen is 5 feet in width and the brooder itself a scanty 3 feet, 
there is sufficient room for the 2-foot front door shown on the 





( 



V 






\ 






-, 



( 



44— 

fj 



#' 






26— PLAN OF BROODER HOUSE 

left. This door should be swung outward, being hinged on the 
side next the brooder. Thus each door can be thrown wide 
open, swinging around against the brooder, without interfering 
with the other doors. 

The lamp fumes and vitiated air naturally rise to the ceil- 
ing and are permitted to escape through the slide covered ven- 
tilator which is above the partition between the two pens. A 
similar ventilator is placed above each pair of brooders. 



THE HEATING OF BROODING HOUSES 



THE MOST SUCCESSFUL DESIGNS OF UNDERNEATH AND OVERHEAD HEATING 
SYSTEMS FOR BROODING HOUSES— THE ADVANTAGES OF EACH AND A COMPARI- 
SON- OF THEIR MERITS— SUMMARY OF MATERIAL REQUIRED FOR 100-FOOT HOUSE 




IE UNDERNEATH SYSTEM 

•HE brooding house illustrated in the accompany- 
ing plan is 140 feet long and 13 feet wide and is 
separated into two parts, 36 feet and 104 feet 
respectively. The shorter end has twelve pens 
of 3 feet each in width and 10 feet in length in- 
cluding the hover, and the longer end has 
t. v. enty-four pens 4 by 10 feet in size. The 
furnace pit and a narrow walk separate the 
two lots of pens and an aisle 3 feet in width extends the entire 
length of the house back of the ho 

The system of piping is under the hover floor in a trench 

CX, 111. 28 ; . 'J he shorter end lias a 2-inch flow and return pipe. 

■-. long end has two flow and two return 1 \ -inch pipes (see 

111. 2'.)j, and both sides arc controlled by valves near the 

reby all, or a part, of the flow may be shut off from 

pipes. The trench is made by excavating to a depth of 6 

inches and 30 i: ■,<■.. The sides are 2 by fj inch spruce 

plank, set on edge (OO). 'J lie bottom of the trench is cemented 

(H). ] boarded with a course of rough 1-inch boanl 

and covered with a layer of matched spruce flooring seven- 

boarding take, away any danger 



from too much bottom heat. The boarding comes flush with 
the edges of the 2 by 6 inch and the frame work of the hovers, 
is secured by 1 by 3 inch posts nailed to the outer sides of the 
2 by 6, which are only as high as the hover divisions (C), which 
in the small pens are 10 inches and in the large pens 12 inches. 



h '• 




w'- 



||§ 3U "Boiler P,t 



l o ft 



1 

.m, : ....f 



27— SICCTIONAL VIEW BROODING HOUSE [UNDERNEATH HEATING SYSTEM) 

34 



INCUBATOR AND BROODING HOUSES 



This gives a house entirely free from inside posts and makes 
possible a view of the whole interior from any part. The hover 
floor is 3 feet wide (the width of the trench) and in the 3-foot 
pens the hover top slides on cleats (F) 6 inches from the floor. 
The top or cover is only 24 inches wide which leaves 12 inches 
of the slightly warm floor in front of the hover curtain, making 
a splendid resting place for the little chicks or ducklings which 




28- 



-DETAIL OF HOVER OF UNDERNEATH HEATING SYSTEM 
BROODING HOUSE 



they evidently enjoy. When first they are put in the hover they 
are penned back nearly to this floor and the gentle warmth 
helps them and keeps the floor free from dampness. The cover 
being in two parts (A and B) and sliding freely on cleats (F) 
may be readily ab justed so as to give ventilation at the back, 
front or center of the hover, or all three, and the surplus heat 
may escape in the same way. 

The hover floor is kept littered with chaff or shavings and 
when the pen is to be cleaned the hover top is removed, the 
back board which sets between the cleats can be taken out and 
the litter swept into the aisle and taken thence in barrels. When 
the little chicks are to be changed from pen to pen, the back 
boards are taken out and they are driven down the aisle from 
one pen to another, which in the long end of the house are 4 
feet wide and the hover 8 inches high, but are otherwise the same 
as the short end. The illustration shows a hover closed, one 
with the top partly cut away and one with the top off and the 
back out, ready for cleaning. 

The hot air is admitted to the hovers through the upright 
lj-inch pipes seen in the lower floor. These pipes reach nearly 
to the cover of the hover and the bottom ends just reach through 
the board floor, being flush with the under side. Back of each 
second hover (on the division post, so as to be out of the way), 
is a 2 by 3 air box which reaches down under the 2 by 6 side 
and permits the cold air to enter the trench. This gives a chance 
for the warm air in the trench to rise through the short, upright 
pipes under the hover and draw in cold air from the aisle, mak- 
ing a perfect circulation. The warm air strikes the hover cover 
and deflecting, makes a perfectly warm box on all sides of the 
little chick and yet exposes his body to no direct heat. The 
variation allowed by the slide cover permits of ventilation and 
the escape of surplus heat at the will of the operator. In very 
' hot nights the cover may be removed altogether. For the older 
chicks no curtain is supplied for the hover front, and this ar- 
rangement leaves the front entirely open in warm weather. 



MATERIAL REQUIRED FOR 100-FOOT HOUSE 

Sills, 12 pieces, 3 by 4, 18 feet; 2 pieces, 3 by 4, 14 feet. 

Plates, 12 pieces, 2 by 4, 18 feet; 2 pieces, 2 by 4. 14 feet. 

Studs, (10 feet to centers,) 11 pieces, 2 by 4, 6 feet 3 inches; 
30 pieces, 2 by 3, 4 feet 7 inches. 

Girts, 10 pieces, 2 by 3, 12 feet. 

Rafters, 51 pieces, 2 by 4, 16 feet. 

Extra for slides, door frames, etc., 8 pieces, 2 by 3, 16 feet. 

Rafter ties, 49 pieces, 1 by 6, 7 feet. 

Boards, outside, 700 feet 14-feet, 2300 feet 16-feet; inside, 
524 feet; total, plain, 3524 feet: matched, 900; if ceiled inside 
add 2400 feet. 

Board up and down. Roof length-wise. 

Paper, roof, 1500 feet; balance 1400 feet. 

Doors, three 3 by 6 feet 6 inches, one 2 by 5. 

Wire netting to suit use, 1-inch mesh. 

HOVER WORK 

Sills, 12 pieces, 2 by 6, 16 feet. 
Floor, 300 feet, 12 feet. 

Covers, divisions and back, matched 500 feet, 12 feet. 
Pen division boards, 14 pieces, 1 by 12, 16 feet. 
Windows, 14 12-light, 9 by 13; 6 rear windows 6-light, 9 
by 13; 2 end windows, 6-light, 9 by 13. 
Cement floor under all, 1300 feet. 
Pit wall 18 inches, 5 by 8 feet, 5 feet deep, pointed. 
Walk across pit and stairs, 5 pieces, 2 by 6, 16 feet. 
Heating and piping to suit. 



OVERHEAD PIPING SYSTEM 

This brooding house may be built exactly like the one con- 
taining the underneath piping system described heretofore. 
The only difference is the arrangement of the hot water pipes, 
and the necessary difference in the construction of the brooderss. 










SLIDES ll"'l«" 


S* 


WINDOW SllOtS ia»20' 




























□ 


hd 




















































1 n — 




















I 































29— GROUND PLAN OF BROODING HOUSE (UNDERNEATH HEATING SYSTEM) FOR EITHER CHICKS OR DUCKLINGS 



30— SECTIONAL VIEW, SHOWING OVERHEAD HEATING SYSTEM 

In the accompanying illustration the overhead piping system 
is used. The construction of the hovers is very simple. The 
back is formed of 1-inch boards 12 inches wide and the divisions 
between the brooders are made of the same size boards, in which 
have been bored eight holes to receive the four flow and four 
return pipes. A narrow board is let in to the division boards 
2 feet 6 inches from the rear wall of the brooder. To this is 
tacked the felt which hangs to the floor of the brooder and is 

slashed for the ac- 
commodation of the 
chicks in passing 
to and fro. Over 
the pipes are placed 
foot-wide boards 
and resting on the 
edges of these are 



35 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING 




51— DETAIL OF HOVER CONSTRUCTION. OVERHEAD HEATING SYSTEM 

boards which bridge the opening. By moving these boards, 
which are loose, ventilation may be obtained at the back, 
front or middle of the hover, and the cleaning of the brood- 
ers is greatly facilitated. This is quite a saving on a large 
plant. 

In the short end of the house chaff or sand is placed in the 



brooders to the depth of 5 or 6 inches, so that the smallest birds 
are brought near the pipes and as they grow the amount of 
litter is decreased, thus giving them more room and taking them 
further from the heat. 

BILL OF MATERIAL 

Sills— 20 pieces, 2 by 6, 16 feet. Plates and Girders— 38 
pieces, 2 by 4, 16 feet. Rafters — 72 pieces 2 by 4, 16 feet. Par- 
titions to Pens — 37 boards, J by 12, 10 feet. Supports for Roof 
through Center of House — 10 pieces 2 by 4, 16 feet. Sides and 
Top to Hover— 30 boards £ by 12, 14 feet; 10 boards, J by 8, 14 
feet. Roof Boards— 2,200 feet boxing; 21,000 shingles. Sides 
and Ends — 2,400 1-inch boards, matched; 6 rolls paper of 500 
square feet each. 20 window sashes, 6 t lights, 9 by 13. One 
door, 2 feet 6 inches by 6 feet 6 inches. 2,600 brick for 8-inch 
wall to broiler pit. 




52— GROUND PLAN OF BROODING HOUSE WITH OVERHEAD HEATING SYSTEM 




36 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION 




SUCCESSFUL ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION 

COMMON SENSE ADVICE ON INCUBATOR MANAGEMENT, INCLUDING LOCATION, 
OPERATION, CARE OF THE LAMP, SELECTION OF EGGS, TURNING AND COOLING 
THE EGGS, TESTING AND CARE OF THE MACHINE DURING HATCHING TIME 



P. T. WOODS, M. D. 




•EBRUARY usually brings the question of starting 
with an incubator into prominence and the hatch- 
ing season should then be begun in earnest 
Early pullets must be hatched in March and 
April to make fall and winter layers and take the 
place of older breeding stock which is to be 
marketed. The early cockerels will bring the 
best profits as fancy spring chickens, and the 
profits on sale of such should practically pay the 
cost of the food consumed by the pullets. For this reason if 
you intend using an incubator the first season, and wish to make 
it pay you a handsome profit, February is the time to start. 

BUYING AN INCUBATOR 

What machine and what size to buy are two questions that 
are not easily settled. In selecting the make of machine the 
beginner must be guided by his own best judgment. It is a 
good plan to study the manufacturers' advertising catalogues 
carefully, read the testimonials and note what date they bear. 
Then call on the nearest successful poultryman in your locality 
and observe for yourself what they are using and learn the results 
obtained. Try to get a fair unbiased opinion from reputable 
men whom you know and whose advice you are willing to follow. 
If you do this you can't go wrong. 

In buying an incubator do not buy too small a machine. 
Fifty eggs will hatch just as well in a 100 or 200-egg machine 
as in a 50-egg size and you have room to set more if you want to. 
It is a decided mistake to buy too small a machine. There is 
very little difference in the time required for operating the 
various sizes and as a rule the lamp of a 100-egg size incubator 
will consume just as much oil as the lamp of a 200 or 300-egg 
size. There is very little difference in the operating expenses, 
and if the machine is a modern standard make you can rely on 
getting equally good results in all sizes. As a general rule the 



100-egg capacity machines are sufficiently small for any town 
lot fancier, although the 50 and 60-egg incubators do excellent 
work and are found entirely satisfactory by many operators. 

WHERE TO RUN THE INCUBATOR 

As soon as you have uncrated your incubator, before set- 
ting it up, read carefully the manufacturer's directions — and 
then re-read them. This is the only way to start right and it 
is important. Learn what you have to do, and how to do it, 
then go ahead. 

The first question to come up will be, where is the best 
place to run the incubator? As a rule, the answer will be that 
the house cellar, if free from gas and decaying vegetable matter, 
is the best place unless one has a specially constructed incubator 
cellar; but with a well made machine almost any unused room 
having a firm floor, free from excessive vibration, can be made 
to serve the purpose well. The best results will be secured in 
an unheated room where the temperature remains fairly uniform 
and where it does not run much above or below 65 degrees. 

The question of ventilating the incubator room is not as 
important as is generally supposed, and so long as the air of the 
room is kept reasonably pure, good results will be obtained. 
A good deal has been written about the danger from carbonic 
acid gas, but the fact remains that the embryo chick is able to 
stand a considerable amount of this gas in the air around the 
eggs. Several recent experiments by experienced investiga- 
tors tend to show that the presence of carbonic acid gas (carbon 
dioxide) in the hatching chamber, when accompanied by mois- 
ture, has a tendency to assist in the process of exclusion by its 
action on the egg shell. Apparently the gas weakens and par- 
tially dissolves the shell, making it easier for the chick to hatch. 
Experiments made at the Montana Experiment Station found 
nearly twice as much carbon dioxide under setting hens as was 
found in the egg chamber of the incubators used in the test; 



37 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING 




33— A SAFE AND CONVENIENT BROOD COOP 

the hatches showing that the presence of the gas aided rather 
than hindered hatching. Ordinarily the incubator room will 
get sufficient ventilation in winter without keeping the window 
open. If a number of machines are run in the room it may be 
necessary to air it out once a day. In summer time a window 
should be kept open day and night for ventilation. 

HAVE THE INCUBATOR LEVEL 

Care must be taken to place the incubator so that it will 
not sit in a draft and it should be made as nearly level as pos- 
sible. Use a spirit level on top of the incubator to test it from 
back to front and from side to side. If a level is not at hand 
use a shallow pan of water on top of the machine for the same 
purpose. If the water is the same depth on all sides with the 
bottom resting evenly on the top of the incubator the machine 
is level. Block up under the legs of the machine until you get 
it right. If the body of the incubator is not level, the egg chamb- 
er will not heat evenly; therefore be sure that the machine is as 
nearly level as possible. Be sure it sits firmly. 

warming up 

When starting the incubator run with low lamp flame'until 
the machine is thoroughly warmed through. Then run with a 
moderately high lamp flame and adjust the regulating device. 
according to the manufacturer's directions. After securing the 
proper adjustment the machine should run evenly at a temper- 
ature of 102$ to 103 in the egg chamber with the center of the 
thermometer bulb two inches from the bottom of the egg tray. 
Maintain this temperature throughout the hatch. Run the 
incubator empty for a few days until you become familiar with 
it and are sure that the regulating device is working properly. 
After you are sure you understand the operation of the machine 
and can run it at an even temperature, the eggs may be put in. 
Do not put in the eggs until you can run the empty incubator 
at an even temperature. 

SELECTING THE EGGS FOR HATCHING 

Don't be eager to fill the machine to the fullest capacity 
of the egg trays. Select the eggs for hatching as carefully as 
you would for use under hens. Be sure the eggs used for hatch- 
ing are from breeding stock that is in the best possible condition. 
J-. from debilitated or unhealthy fowls will only prove a 
disappointment. If they hatch, the chicks will not do well and 
the probability is that many of the chicks will be dead in the 
shell or die within the first ten days after hatching. To get the 
best results use only eggs from sound, healthy breeding stock. 
Eggs of medium size for the fowl producing them usually hatch 
best. Very large or very small eggs should not be used. Discard 
all eggs having misshapen, rough lumpy or thin porous shells. 



Unless the egg tray is especially fitted for placing the eggs 
in rows there is no need of so arranging them. Fill the tray 
with as many as will go in easily, but do not pile up the eggs 
or attempt to double up by placing eggs on top of a full tray. 

STARTING THE HATCH 

After placing the eggs in the machine, let it alone until 
thejeggs have had time to warm up, which will take several 
hours. Then make sure that the machine is holding tempera- 
ture properly and do not let the heat run above 103 degrees. 
Too high a temperature during the first week will injure the 
germs. 

Under all ordinary conditions it will be best to run with 
the ventilators closed in hot air machines, having an exhaust 
or return pipe to the heater, and nearly closed in other types. 
Too much ventilation is worse than none. The modern machines 
of standard make furnish ample ventilation and it is seldom 
necessary to run the vents wide open. In case of doubt, consult 
the directions furnished by the manufacturer. He should know 
best the proper conditions for securing good results with his 
machine. 

Run the incubator lamp with a moderately high flame at 
the start, gradually reducing the height of same as the hatch 
progresses, until you are running with the minimum height 
flame necessary at hatching time. This is necessary on account 
of the constantly increasing radiation of animal heat from the 
eggs as the embryo grows and becomes more vigorous. 

TURNING THE EGGS 

After the second day it will be necessary to turn the eggs 
twice a day; these turnings should be' as nearly twelve hours 
apart as possible. The writer prefers to turn eggs by removing 
them from the center of the tray to the ends and rolling the bal- 
ance inward toward the center with the flat of the hand. This 
is the most satisfactory method and is easy and simple in prac- 
tice. It tends to even up any inequalities of temperature in 
the egg chamber and gives all the eggs an even chance to hatch 
well. In addition to this the position of the trays should be 
changed from side to side at the morning turning, when two or 
more are used, and turned from end to end at the night turning 




54— A MOST SATISFACTORY FEEDING TROUGH 



38 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION 



COOLING THE EGGS 

Under all ordinary conditions in a temperate climate, ex- 
cept in extremely warm weather, the eggs will do better if no 
cooling or airing is attempted. The eggs get all the airing 
necessary, for best results, while being turned and should be 
returned at once to the incubator after turning. Afte the 
eggs are replaced the door of the egg chamber should be closed 
and the machine let alone until next turning time. The tem- 
perature of the eggs and the egg chamber always falls whenever 
the incubator door is opened or the eggs are removed for turning. 
Do not attempt to adjust the regulating device to assist the 
machine to return to normal temperature; if it is let alone it 
will recover the proper temperature in a short time without 
regulation. 

In very hot weather, where the temperature runs high in 
the incubator cellar, the eggs may be cooled from five to fifteen 
minutes once a day. When running at any season of the year, 
should the temperature 
of the egg chamber rise 
above 103 degrees, from 
any cause, it is a good 
plan to cool the eggs 
from five to fifteen min- 
utes according to the 
length of time they have 
been exposed to higher 
temperature. Do not 
practice cooling the eggs, 
except as advised herein 
if you wish to get the best 
results. 

CARE OF THE LAMP 

Keep the incubator 
lamp clean. Put in a new 
wick when starting each 
hatch. Be sure to trim 
the wick and fill the lamp 
after turning the eggs 
every morning. Never 
attend to the lamp and 
then handle the eggs with 
oily hands. Carelessness 
of that kind has ruined 
many hatches. Keep the 
perforations in the disc 
about the wick tube of 
the lamp burner, clean 
and open, and do not al- 
low crusts to accumulate 
on the wick tube. Use 
only the best grade of kerosene oil. 

In filling the lamp be careful not to run the oil over — have 
it full, but not too full. Always run a lamp flame of sufficient 
height so that it can be turned higher or lower as needed. Never 
turn the flame high enough to cause the lamp to smoke. 

TESTING THE EGGS 

An egg tester is furnished with every incubator and hen 
eggs should be tested twice during each hatch. Experienced 
operators will make their first test on the sixth day. but it is 
easier for the beginner to test on the tenth day. Do not turn 
the eggs on testing day, as handling them while testing will 
stir them up all that is necessary. In cold weather test the 
eggs in a warm room. When the egg tray is removed close 
the door of the machine. The egg tester should be ready for 
use in a dark room and it is more convenient to provide an extra 
tray in which to place the fertile eggs and a basket for the in- 
fertile ones and dead germs. By holding the eggs before the 



opening in the egg tester, which has been placed on a lighted 
lamp, the operator will be able to examine the contents. The 
infertile eggs will be perfectly clear or only show a slight shadow 
of the yolk. 

The dead germs are not so easy to recognize, and a little 
practice is necessary to identify them. Many dead germs will 
show a small irregular red line apparently adhering to the inside 
of the shell, or a broken circle of red containing a dark brown 
spot. The operator will soon become familiar with the various 
types of dead and putrid eggs. 

On the sixth day the five egg is easily recognized as it", 
contains a spider like arrangement of blood vessels in the midst, 
of which appears the embryo, a small irregular dark body which 
has pulsating motion and appears to be floating in the center 
of the network of blood vessels which radiate from it. On the 
tenth day the larger portion of the fertile egg appears dark 
with a fair sized air space at the large end. Mark any doubt- 




HEALTHY BROODER-RAISED LEGHORN CHICKS 



ful eggs and let them remain in the machine until the next test. 
When the trayful has been tested and the infertile eggs and 
dead germs removed, the five eggs should be returned to the 
incubator. The infertile eggs may be cooked and fed to large 
brooder chicks, growing stock or breeding birds. Do not feed 
eggs to newly hatched chicks. 

The second test should be made on the seventeenth or 
eighteenth day. All five germs will now appear to fill the 
greater part of the egg, making it opaque when held before the 
tester. The air cell will be considerably increased in size and 
may show a slightly irregular outline. Dead germs will show 
a streaky or mottled appearance. All dead germs and any eggs, 
marked doubtful at the first test, which have failed to develop 
should be removed at this time. 

HATCHING TIME 

When chicks begin to pip the eggs (break the shell) it is 
time to stop turning. The trays should be pushed back as far 



39 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING 



as they will go to give the chicks :i chance to drop into the 
nursery below the trays, or. if there are two trays, one may 
be pushed back and the other drawn forward, leaving a space 
at the front and back of the egg chamber for the chicks to fall 
into the nursery. 

Now close the machine and let it remain closed until the 
hatch is over. If it has been running evenly and regulating 
properly it is perfectly safe to trust and interference at hatch- 
ing time will only injure or spoil the hatch. 

Learn to let the incubator alone at hatching time. When 
the cliicks are hatching it will do so harm for the temperature 
to run as high as 105 degrees, but it should not go higher. 

Never open the incubator to "help" a cluck which seems 



is a large number of very wet chicks in the machine, but as soon 
as the chicks have dried the trays should be removed. 

By leaving the incubator door open in this manner a greater 
vohune of fresh air is supplied for the use of the chicks which 
now require a considerable quantity for breathing purposes 
since their lungs have been brought into action. While the 
incubator has sufficient ventilation for all purposes of incuba- 
tion, and for supplying sufficient oxygen to the embryo chick 
through the blood vessels lining the egg shell, it does not give 
a sufficient amount of fresh air for use of a machine full of 
lusty young chicks which have broken out of their shells and 
are making use of their full lung capacity for the first time. 

Chicks hardened off in this 
manner always make a better 
life of it than when confined 
too closely to the machine. It 
will be advisable to let the 
chicks remain in the incubator 
for 24 to 36 hours after hatch- 
ing, at the end of which time 
they should be placed in the 







w^ 



Vr— DRINKING FOUNTAIN AND FEED HOPPER 



to be having a hard time to get out. Such practice is almost 
certain to injure the balance of the eggs by releasing the mois- 
ture and cooling the eggs. When the chicks have all hatched 
as near as you can judge by looking through the glass in the 
incubator door, the ventilators should be thrown wide open; 
at this time remove the egg trays and all egg shells from the 
machine, turn the button-, on incubator door to the perpendicular 
and close the door against them, fastening it in place by means 
of a wire attached to a tack driven into the body of the machine 
and make it fact to the knob on the incubator door. This 
leaves the door open a little and allows a greater volume of air 
to enter the egg chamber, assists the cliicks to dry off properly 
and helps harden them at a temperature a little lower than that 
at which they were hatched. 'J his should not be done if there 



brooder which has been made ready 
heated up waiting for them. 



and is running all 



WHAT IS A GOOD HATCH 

Don't expect too much of your incubator. Many compe- 
tent men believe that they get just as good or better results 
from the season's work with incubators as they could with hens. 
They have good ground for their behef. 

Some hens will hatch thirteen chicks from thirteen eggs 
sometimes. Many more hatch but five or six chicks and there 
are plenty of hens that do not hatch any chicks at all or that 
spoil nearly all of their eggs. 

You get chicks dead in the shell from various causes when 
hatching under hens and you get them in incubators. Summing 



4(1 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION 



it up carefully you will not find such a wide difference in results 
between the natural and artificial methods for the given number 
of eggs incubated. You don't feel alarmed if you find from 
four to five chicks dead in the eggs under a hen, yet the same 
percentage loss in a 100 or 200-egg incubator startles you, be- 
cause it looks bigger, owing to the greater number that you see 
at one time. 

Two infertile eggs and four chicks dead in the shell out of 
a sitting under a hen is a very common thing. In a machine con- 
taining one hundred eggs the same percentage would mean at 
least fifteen infertile eggs and thirty chicks dead in the shell, 
which would seem alarming to the inexperienced. 

Experienced incubator operators feel well satisfied if they 
find that their entire season's work 'gives them an average of 
fifty chicks for each hundred eggs set. Some are able to better 
this average. Hatches made during the spring months, the 
natural breeding season, will frequently run a much higher per- 
centage. I have obtained 75, 80, 97 and 108 chicks from the 
120 eggs set when hatching in March, April and May and many 
others can report like results. Earlier and later hatches have 
given 50 to 65 chicks, sometimes more, very seldom less, while 
even some spring hatches have not averaged better than 50 per 
cent of the eggs set. I considered the results good and never 
once thought of blaming the incubator. Hens would not have 
done better with the same number of eggs, conditions being 
equal. 

One hundred per cent hatches are sometimes made in in- 
cubators, but like the thirteen chicks from thirteen eggs that 
advocates of the natural method like to boast of as "old biddy's" 
record, they are exceptional cases. 

Get a good incubator, use good fresh eggs from sound, 
healthy, vigorous breeding stock and be reasonable in your ex- 



pectations. If you do this, take my word for it, you will not be 
disappointed. 

An old time poultryman recently said to me, "I wouldn't 
set 500 eggs under hens again if you'd give me the eggs and pay 
me for my trouble. I'll take an incubator every time, keep my 
conscience clear and a clean sheet with the recording angel. 
I haven't the time nor the patience to hatch a lot of chicks with 
hens." I have no doubt that many feel as he does and I know 
that I do. 

CARE OF THE INCUBATOR 

After the chicks have been removed from the machine 
give it a thorough cleaning. If the incubator has burlap or 
other porous material covering the bottom of the nursery, this 
should be cleaned and removed. Run the machine for a day 
or two to thoroughly dry it out before starting a new hatch. 
When a number of hatches have been run it is advisable to use 
a weak solution of some creolin disinfectant in warm water to 
wash out the interior of the egg chamber. Before starting with 
another lot of eggs be sure to dry and air out the egg chamber 
thoroughly. Ordinarily disinfectants will only be required at 
the close of the hatching season before the incubator is put 
away. 

Always store the machine in a dry place where the wood- 
work will not be liable to be affected by moisture and so swell 
and warp out of shape. Never leave an incubator with the 
lamp filled, if this is done the oil is liable to creep up on the 
metal and the result will be that when the machine is next 
started it will smoke and give trouble. A little attention given 
to taking care of the incubator when through hatching will 
prove a saving both in time and money and aid greatly in the 
preservation of the machine itself. 



A FEW HINTS ON BUYING INCUBATORS 

DO NOT PUT IT OFF— BUY A GOOD INCUBATOR— CONSIDER THE RIGHT SIZE- 
LOCATION OF THE INCUBATOR— THE ABUSE OF INCUBATORS— TEST THE EGGS 



A. F. HUNTER 




O NOT put off buying too long, that is, until the 
season for hatching is near at hand. An in- 
cubator will cost no more bought early than at 
the time you want to begin to use it, and there 
are very manifest advantages in getting it into 
your possession, and becoming to a certain ex- 
tent familiar with it. 
While extreme delays may be unusual, still, there are pos- 
sible delays, owing to the transfers which may be necessary in 
transit. Therefore we say buy your machine in good time so 
as to avoid the possible misfortune of delay. Another point is 
that you have an opportunity to set up the machine at a time 
when you have plenty of leisure to do it right and get the con- 
ditions right. 

We heard from a lady in Montana who says that she bought 
an incubator last spring, got it home to her house about noon, 
went to work uncrating it and setting it up as soon as she had 
eaten her dinner, and at 5 o'clock in the afternoon put the eggs 
into it. A little consideration of the risks those eggs were sub- 
jected to will illustrate the point. She had never seen an in- 
cubator before and had no idea of running one excepting what 
she got in the directions sent with the incubator. As for- 
tune favored her, she got a good hatch, but the chances were 
certainly very much against it; and it is very foolish to take 
chances when we can avoid them by taking time by the forelock. 
It is good, sound advice to take three or four days in which to 



gradually warm up the machine to the desired temperature, see 
that the regulation is properly adjusted to the desired point, 
become familiar with the individuality of the lamp so that the 
flame can be set at pretty nearly the same point after each fill- 
ing and trimming, — in fact, become "familiar" with the methods 
of operating the incubator. This is purely elementary advice, 
but the great bulk of incubator buyers are amateurs, and very 
many of them have never operated incubators before, hence 
these same "A, B, C" points have to be gone over frequently. 

BUY A GOOD INCUBATOR 

Do not make the mistake that some beginners do of buying 
a cheap incubator because you risk less in case you do not suc- 
ceed with it. We had that argument made to us in a letter 

in which the writer said he preferred the because it was 

cheapest, and if he did not succeed with it his loss would be 
smaller. We have no right to say that a cheap incubator is 
not a good incubator; nor to say the reverse, that the highest 
priced incubator is the best incubator. The point we wish to 
suggest is the one which the late President Harrison made in 
his oft-quoted statement about the cheap coat. It is a well 
known fact that a cheap pair of shoes cannot be made of so 
good leather nor so well made as a pair of shoes costing, say, 
twice as much; no one would expect to get as good a pair of 
shoes for $1.50 as he would for $3; in the very nature of 
things it is impossible that he should. 



41 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING 



\- this principle runs throughout all business, it is per- 
tly legitimate advioe to say that the probability is against a 
cheap incubator being as good an incubator as you will require 
for best results. IV sure you buy a good one. because the 
incubator is the chief corner-stone of your success in poultry 
work. Chickens that are poorly hatched start in life with a 
serious handicap and in the very nature of things cannot be 
so thrifty, cannot grow so well, anil have not so much strength 
and vigor as chicks that are "well hatched." A well known 
physical scientist says that "we owe to our children that they 
be well born"; similarly we owe it to our chickens that they 
are well hatched. There is another adage that applies, namely, 
that ''well begun is half done" — hence the importance of the 
advice to buy a good incubator. 

CONSIDER THE BEST SIZE 

A very common mistake with beginners is to buy a small 
machine, and then, after a hatch or two, learn that they ought 
to have had one of twice the 
size. A case in point was 
that of a lady in Canada 
whom I met last summer. 
She bought a small incuba- 
tor, took it home, set it up, 
got an excellent hatch from 
it, then went directly off to 
the agent and exchanged it 
for a 100 per cent larger 
size, because she wanted one 
that would do twice the work 
of the smaller one. She had 
bought a small one in the 
first place because she dis- 
trusted her ability to run an 
incubator, and was not cer- 
tain that an incubator would 
do as good work as hens; 
but that brief trial convinc- 
ed her that she had blund- 
ered in buying the small 
size and that it would have 
been sundry dollars in her 
pocket if she had bought 
the larger one at the outset. 
Fortunately, in her case, the 
mistake was comparatively 
easily remedied, because the 
agent was only eight or ten 
miles distant and was quite 

willing to make the exchange with her. If she had bought the 
machine of the manufacturer direct there would have been the 
difficulty of arranging the matter by correspondence, taking 
down, crating and shipping the machine back and remitting 
the difference in price, and paying return freight charges on 
the larger machine. 

Consider well the hatching capacity you require for your 
business and buy a good incubator of the size that will do the 
->: you wish to have done. The time has gone by when there 
is any question about an incubator doing the work an incubator 
is wanted to do. It has been abundantly proven that a good, 
dependable incubator will not only hatch chickens, but will 
hatch those that are strong and thrifty; the incubator will do 
/•••: /.ork than will the erratic sitting hens. This point of 
buying a good incubator is suggested by the experience 
of a lady who mentioned incidentally that she bought 
an incubator last spring and sold the chicks of the first hatch 
for enough to pay for the machine and had some $5 over; 
as she had never used an incubator before, such an experi- 




37— A CONFINED PEN IN FRONT OF THE BROODER 
This illustration shows a method of confining: chicks that should not be practiced in warm 
weather. The pens should have wire or lath sides to allow of a free circulation of air. 



once is abundant proof of the good work incubators will do. 

LOCATION OF AN INCUBATOR 

The location of the incubator is a. most important question, 
lor upon its right location much depends; as, for example, its 
accessibility and hence ease of management, the supply of fresh 
air For it, and many other aids to good hatches. Taking up the 
question of fresh air first, because it is very important — it is 
really wonderful that some incubator managers get as good re- 
sults as they do. The common advice is, "Put the incubator 
in a cellar," without a thought of how many different shades of 
meaning are attached to that word, cellar. In some sections 
of the country there are no such tilings as cellars, in other 
sections, as for example, New England, a cellar is a large or 
small underground apartment intended for the storage of fruit 
and vegetables to secure them against frost (not forgetting a 
row of barrels of cider), and such a cellar has usually no facili- 
ties for ventilation; and, during the winter months, absolutely 

no fresh air reaches it save 
such as is admitted when the 
housewife goes down to get 
supplies. Such a "cellar" is 
a most unfit place for an in- 
cubator because the incuba- 
tor lamp, burning night and 
day, soon exhausts the oxy- 
gen of the air, and by the 
time the germs have devel- 
oped into embryos and begun 
to breathe, there is practi- 
cally no oxygen for them. 
Oxygen is absolutely essen- 
tial to life, and a liberal sup- 
ply of oxygen is needed by 
the one or two hundred tiny 
pairs of lungs within the in- 
cubator if the bodies are to 
develop strength to survive 
the struggle for exclusion. 
Here is where very many be- 
ginners stumble. They are 
afraid to allow fresh air to 
enter for fear of variations in 
the temperature of the incu- 
bating apartment, or that the 
slightest current of air, will 
derange the regulation of the 
machine, and the direct re- 
sult of their fear is insuffi- 
cient oxygen, weakened embryos and a poor hatch; further- 
more, even the chicks that have sufficient strength to survive 
to exclusion are to a considerable per cent, debilitated and 
weaker than they would have been if there had been a suffici- 
ency of fresh air. 

For many reasons the common house cellar is an unfit place 
in which to run an incubator; most cellars are too damp and 
all are lacking in facilities for admitting fresh air, hence it is 
much wiser to have the incubator room above (or mostly above) 
ground. 

THE ABUSE OF INCUBATORS 

Many people are unfair to their incubators, either through 
ignorance or carelessness, or both, and do not give them more 
than half a chance to do the work an incubator is intended to 
do. An incubator is precisely like every other kind of machine 
in that it has to be operated by "human intelligence," and 
if the operator neglects to apply his intelligence and common- 
sense, or has a super-abundance of that impalpable quality 



42 





FERTILE EGG (HEN); SEVEN DAYS 



FERTILE EGG (DUCK); SEVEN DAYS 





INFERTILE EGG (HEN); FOURTEEN DAYS 



FERTILE EGG (HEN); FOURTEEN DAYS 



HOW EGGS APPEAR THROUGH A TESTER AT VARIOUS STAGES OF INCUBATION 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION 



which New England people call carelessness, the results will be 

unsatisfactory and the incubator manufacturer will get the 
blame. An incubator is inn endowed with intelligence. That 
most essential quality must tv supplied by the operator, and 
that word •'intelligence" is very significant. Possibly the term 
common-sense or "horse-sense" explains it better, because it is 
not essential that a man or woman be a trained scholar, but it 
is necessary that one be able to understand the plain directions, 
and then follow them. 

One difficulty is that the instructions have such a different 
meaning to different individuals, because they understand words 
different ly. lake, for example, the instruction to fill and trim 
the lamp once a day. To a careful and tidy housewife that 
means that the lamp is to be filled pretty well up to the top, the 
charred crust of the wick brushed off, the burner carefully wiped 
and the perforated air plate in the base of the burner is to be 
brushed clean and then wiped clean and dry, and then the lamp 
itself is wiped clean of any dust collections and, in fact, of all 
dirt and dampness, whether of oil or moisture. To the "care- 
less'' individual the same instructions to fill and trim the lamp 
mean that the can of oil is tip-ended, slap-dash, and oil spurted 
into the lamp until it is overful, then the thumbnail (or a 
match-stick) is run along the edge of the wick tube to scrape off 
the incrusted wick, the scrapings falling over the burner and 
especially upon the air-plate in the base, the lamp is relighted, 
chucked back into place and left to its fate. This isn't a "fancy 
sketch*' — we have seen incubator lamps mishandled in just that 
way, and the man was called a "hustler" and had the name of 
"turning off a whole lot of work." Evidently the work was 
"turned off!" 

We don't at all mean that there is to be a lot of "fussing" 
with the lamp and other details of caring for an incubator, be- 
cause there is not. It is a fact, though, that a very great dif- 
ference in mental habit means a very great difference of interpre- 
tation (or understanding) of instructions by different persons, 
and while one will easily and successfully manage his incubators 
and get good hatches another will so bungle his work as to get 
poor hatches every time, and he will be the one to complain 
that incubators are no good, or that he hasn't luck with them. 

NO SUCH THING AS "LUCK" 

There is no such thing as luck with an incubator. There 
is some element of "luck" in hatching with hens, but with a 
well made and well regulated incubator the element of "luck" 
isn't in it at all. If instructions are followed and the regulator 
rightly adjusted the temperature is held to a degree, and with 
the temperature kept at the desirable point and the ventilation 
what it should be the eggs will hatch if handled right. If the 
regulator doesn't control the temperature the machine is at 
fault, because the up-to-date incubators of to-day will keep the 
temperature right; if you haven't an incubator with a regulator 
that regulates you haven't the right incubator! 

We should remember that the incubator manufacturer 

wants lis to have good hatches; it i.'s to his interest to have us 

ceed, as an unsuccessful customer is a poor advertisement 

for hi>; machine. The instructions sent out with it are calculated 

ad to a successful operating of the incubator, but we must 

do our part and supply the element of intelligence and common 

sense. If anyone buys an incubator in the expectation that all 

he has to do ia put in the eggs and then take out the chicks at 

the end of three weeks he will get badly left. The house-wife 

latches range i a tool or implement for accomplishing 

certain results with foods for the family, and she also knows 

that she must guide the range in its work, regulating the heat to 

the particular work she desires to do, putting in and taking out 

bread at the right time., etc. Just so with the 

incubator. It is an implement with which we can accomplish 

the hatching of chickens at any time we choose if we do our part, 



just as the house-wife accomplishes a successful baking by doing 
her part; the essential thing is that we "do well our part." 
As we said before we don't want to be continually "fussing" 
with the incubator; leave it alone and give it a chance to do its 
parti Many a fair promise has been wrecked by injudicious 
meddling on the part of the operator, and if we can get amateurs 
to understand that they are doing the best service by letting 
the incubator entirely alone, excepting the regular trimming 
and filling of the lamp and turning and airing of the eggs, we 
shall have decidedly aided to good results. Of course, the 
therm ometers must be glanced at night and morning to be sure 
the temperature is steady, and the air in the incubator room 
must be fresh and pure, but, beyond that, the less the incubator 
is fussed with the better. Judgment must be used, also, in cool- 
ing and airing the eggs, and especially must we be careful if 
the incubator room is cold. In winter it is good economy to 
warm the incubator room to (say) sixty degrees, so as to avoid 
the severe shock to the embryos of taking the eggs out of the 
warm incubator into a temperature well down towards freezing. 
Embryo chicks are decidely more delicate in winter than in 
April and May, and it is in winter they are liable to be subjected 
to a particularly trying low temperature; the spring eggs are 
decidedly stronger and more hatchable, and yet the winter eggs 
are the ones likely to meet the extra trying conditions. We 
must use judgment in all of the details of incubator manage- 
ment, as do the incubator operators who have made the splendid 
successes. "Don't care" never made a success of this (or any 
other) work! 

TEST THE EGGS 

A not uncommon fault of inexperienced incubator operators 
is to neglect testing the eggs. This is a mistake for several 
reasons. First, there is always a proportion of eggs that are 
absolutely clear, running usually from 10 to 25 or 30 per cent, 
and those clear eggs are perfectly good for cooking. They are 
not quite fresh, of course, since the six or seven days that they 
have been in the machine have "staled" them to a certain ex- 
tent, but no more than if they had lain on the counter of a 
country store for a few weeks — as is very frequently the case. 
Large operators usually sell these infertile eggs to bakers and 
confectioners, and they are used up in making cakes, pies, cus- 
tards, etc. 

A decided advantage in removing from the trays these 
clear eggs is that there is more room for the fertile eggs in the 
trays, and they can be turned and handled more easily; even if 
no second test is made, a first test, to take out the clear eggs, 
certainly should be made. 

A second test about the sixteenth or seventeenth day, to 
remove genns that have died since the first test, is a help to a 
good hatch. Those dead eggs usually throw off slight odors or 
deleterious matter, hence a good hatch is promoted by getting 
them out of the machine. Another argument for testing eggs 
is that it increases one's knowledge of embryonic life and devel- 
opment, and enhances the interest of artificial incubation. A 
good tester is sent out with every incubator sold and we strongly 
urge the buyer to start right, — and learning to test his eggs is 
an important part of that start. 

Dark shelled and thick shelled eggs are more difficult for 
an amateur to test than are the more common white-shelled 
eggs, for the reason that the light does not shine through them 
so well, and even an experienced tester may mistake a clear 
egg for a probable genn; that is, the yolk may throw a shadow 
that will have the appearance of a good, strong germ. 

It is well in learning to test to break a few eggs that one 
is doubtful of and learn the appearance of clear eggs, dead germs, 
strong-living germs, etc. Do not be afraid to sacrifice a dozen 
or two of eggs in the interest of gaining knowledge — it is a good 
investment in the long run. 



44 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION 



SUPPLY FRESH AIR 

Be sure that there is an abundant supply of fresh air in the 
incubator room at all times. A serious mistake of beginners is 
being afraid that a little fresh air will jeopardize the hatch. It 
is important to remember that if you have 150 living germs in 
an incubator all of those 150 living organisms are consuming 
oxygen every day and every minute of the day, hence it is im- 
portant that they be abundantly supplied with that life-giving 
element. If the incubator is in a moderately warm place, say 
about 60 degrees, more air can be admitted to the machine and 
the eggs can be cooled and aired a longer time than if the ma- 
chine is in a considerably colder place. This means that cooling 
and airing the eggs should be much less in cold weather than in 
mild, spring weather; then, too, you can do decidedly more cool- 
ing and airing the last third of the hatch than earlier, and the 
living embryos will be the better for it. The practice of operators 
varies considerably, some cooling and airing the eggs a great 
deal after the first week, and there are some who cool and air 
from the very start almost. Generally speaking, however, if 




38— IDEAL QUARTERS FOR BREEDING STOCK 

the incubator is in- a cool place it will be found that the eggs 
get sufficiently cooled and aired at the daily turning the first 
week, then a few minutes a day the second week, and the last 
week (up to the time of pipping) ten to fifteen minutes a day 
is none too much. Indeed, if the animal heat in the eggs is 
strong and the temperature of the incubator room is 60 degrees 
or above, quite a long airing daily will be beneficial. 

Don't be afraid of giving the embryo chicks shut up within 
the egg shells too much fresh air to breathe, — the errors are all 
in the other direction. One man, for example, stuffed rags into 
every crack and crevice, to keep out the life giving oxygen in the 
air! He will save a few cents worth of oil by keeping out the 
cool air, but at the expense of vitality and vigor of the chicks, — 
and some of them may be so weakened by the lack of fresh air 
to breathe that they may not be able to struggle out of the 
shelta Many and many a hatch has been spoiled by this fear 



of fresh air getting to the chicks, and when the operator finds a 
lot of "chicks dead in the shells" he writes off to his poultry 
editor and complains that the incubator don't hatch good strong 
chicks 1 How could it, when the operator is afraid to let the 
life-giving oxygen in the air get to the embryo chicks, and doesn't 
give them a chance to grow strong and vigorous? 



ARTIFICIAL HATCHING OF CHICKS 

PRACTICAL INFORMATION IN REGARD TO 
INCUBATOR MANAGEMENT— FEEDING OF 
YOUNG CHICKS— MOISTURE IN INCUBATORS 

H. P. JOHNSON 

THIS is the modern method of raising chickens in any 
numbers, and the poultryman who tries to do it in any 
other way cannot hope to compete with those who adopt 
up-to-date methods. There are so many good makes of incuba- 
tors on the market that it is 
a hard matter to make any 
recommendation at all. Do not 
buy an incubator simply be- 
cause it is cheap; rather buy 
the machine that costs a little 
more and that carries the 
maker's guarantee with it, and 
one that you know is in satis- 
factory use by the leading 
poultry raisers of the day. 
The same remarks will apply 
to the brooder, for whereas 
anything will hatch a certain 
percentage of chicks, it is only 
the properly constructed, sci- 
entifically ventilated brooder 
that will raise those chicks af- 
ter they are hatched. 

There are, from my ex- 
perience, a few golden rules 
that must be observed by those 
who would have success in the 
operating of incubators, and 
they are as follows: Run the 
machine strictly in accordance 
with the maker's printed in- 
structions; for it is a reasonable 
supposition that he has made 
every experiment and investi- 
gation necessary for success 
and is as much interested in 
the machine doing the work 
properly as you are, and more so, as it means increased sales 
for him; therefore, I say, follow his directions to the letter. 

Air your eggs at a regular time every day and also have a 
set time for filling and trimming your lamp, and do it then, so 
that you will not have the misfortune to find your machine 
cold and the hatch ruined. 

Do not be in a hurry to open the machine at the end of the 
hatch; your chicks will not die of starvation; nature has provid- 
ed for all their requirements for at least forty-eight hours after 
exclusion, and more chicks are killed by opening the machine, 
perhaps with a view to saving some chick which it is thought 
cannot get out by itself, than by any other means. The chick 
that has to be assisted out of the shell is never any good, and in 
saving, or trying to save, the one you may kill fifty others. 
Let me then make a strong point of this; do not allow any one, 
by any excuse, whatever, to open your machine during the 



45 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING 



. hing or until it is all over and you are ready then to remove 
the chicks to the brooder. This is also a critical time, as they 
must be quickly removed to the brooder without a chance of 
a chill, which is almost sure to bo fatal, audit not so will give 
them a great set-back, and they never will quite recover from it. 

A most important point to be observed is the keeping of 
an equal temperature and the proper supply of pure, fresh air. 
In the matter of temperature it is a good plan to err on the side 
of too much than too little. What 1 mean is that if your ma- 
chine is such that it cannot be regulated to a fine point, it is 
better to be on the high side than to have the machine at 102 
degrees. One hundred and three degrees is conceded to be the 
correet incubating temperature, and the nearer the temperature 
is kept at that the more satisfactory the result. 

All good makes of incubators are now provided with reliable 
automatic regulators, so that if the maker's directions are fol- 
lowed there will be no variations of temperature. Follow the 
directions and keep heat as regular as possible, providing plenty 
of fresh air by proper airing of the eggs daily. Do not be afraid 
to give the eggs plenty of fresh air, as this is essential above all 




39— JUST HATCHED 

things to the proper and timely exclusion of the chick and to 
the natural drying out of the egg. But do not get the eggs 
where they will be chilled or you will err on the other side. 
What is wanted is pure, not cold air. 

Most beginners are too timid about airing the eggs; especi- 
ally during the last week, and more clucks are lost from this 
cause than any other; they are practically smothered in the shell. 
Did you ever notice the way a hen will leave her eggs, often for 
half an hour each day, and even an hour if the weather is warm, 
and then hatch every one? More pure air should be the motto 
of the incubator operators and there would be more chicks. 
These same remarks apply also to the brooder and brooder 
houses. Fresh air is the life of the chick, both before and after 
hatching. 

MOISTURE AND VENTILATION IN INCUBATORS 

All know that varying conditions demand varying forms 
of treatment. This applies to artificial incubation, and especi- 
ally to "moisture" and "ventilation." Experience has taught 
us that it is impracticable to build an incubator with a positive 
fixed ventilation (self- ventilation); also, with no provision for 
supplying moisture; for a machine must be so made as to give 
uniformly large hatches whether operated in ■■> ><M cellar or in 
an over-heated chamber, and whether operated under the ex- 
acting condition:-; in the dry al ere of Colorado, the damp 
air of the Atlantic coast, the heat of Florida, or the chilly air 
■ ot to provide for these varied conditions would be 
impractical and unreasonable. 1' must, therefore, be 
em at nil time-;, in nature':-, way, the proper supply 
of fresh air and the lack oi ire, under any and all 
htions of atmosphere and temperature, and at different 
seaeon-. of the year. 

n will have to use a great deal of judgment and 



common sense in this important matter, as the conditions at 
the time of hatching have so much influence on the matter that 
it is impossible to lay down any set rules. 

There are times when the so-called non-moisture machines 
have been proved to give infinitely better results by having a 
pan of water placed in the machine. 



HATCHING WITH INCUBATORS 

W. H. HARDIN 

IN REGARD to the kind of incubator to purchase, I should 
by all means advise buying a hot air machine in prefer- 
ence to a hot water one. Hot water may be just as good, 
but I have invariably had the best results from the former. 
My first choice for the location of an incubator would be a me- 
dium dry cellar, there being few changes of temperature in such 
a place, though I have had excellent results from machines that 
stood in my bed room. You should avoid placing your machines 
where a direct current of air will strike them, in which event 
you will find more or less trouble in maintaining a uniform de- 
gree of heat within the egg chamber, especially if your machine 
is a single case one. Although double case machines cost a 
fraction more than single case ones, yet they are well worth the 
difference in price and give far more satisfactory results. 

In order that you may get a good uniform hatch, it is nec- 
essary that your eggs be as freshly gathered as possible, and as 
nearly as practicable of the same age. Freshly gathered eggs 
always will hatch sooner than those that are older. After get- 
ting your machine heated to the proper degree of temperature, 
introduce your eggs, allowing them to remain quietly for two 
days and nights, after which they should be turned night and 
morning and aired ten to thirty minutes, according to the season 
of the year. Do not let them cool much under seventy degrees. 
The importance of this matter of airing was brought to my at- 
tention before I began using incubators, from the fact that those 
of my sitters that came off their nests twice or three times a day 
during the period of incubation almost without exception brought 
off the greatest number of chicks, while on the other hand, the 
close, steady sitters never gave me satisfactory hatches. Dur- 
ing the winter and early spring I should advise say ten minutes 
cooling; but later on, from twenty-five to thirty and even forty 
minutes would be better. 

I test my eggs on the seventh day of incubation, removing 
all clear eggs, and I test from that time on until I am satisfied 
that none but fertile eggs, those that will hatch, remain in the 
machine, because if one or more chicks should die in the shell 
during the time they are allowed to remain in the machine they 
will throw off a most disagreeable odor which will prove disas- 
trous to your hatch. It is highly important that the air within 
the egg chamber be perfectly sweet and pure at all times. 

In regard to the proper amount of ventilation requisite at 
different stages of the hatch, I would suggest that an amateur 
on making his first hatch with an incubator set a hen at the same 
time he does his machine and note carefully from day to day 
the difference in the development of the air cells of the eggs 
under the hens and those in the incubator. By this means you 
can readily determine whether you have too much or too little 
ventilation. 

If your machine is located in a cellar that is somewhat damp, 
it is not likely that you will need any supplied moisture, but in 
running your machine in a dry room above the ground, particu- 
larly in hot, dry weather, is it often necessary to supply a little 
moisture during the latter part of the hatch. However, the 
necessity for this will have to be determined more or less by the 
appearance of the egg shell. When the chicks come out, if they 
look dry and shriveled and pieces of the shell adhere to them, 



46 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION 



add a little moisture by means of a wet sponge or a small quan- 
itty of warm water in a saucer, which will generally correct the 
trouble. Avoid opening the machine while a hatch is in progress, 
as it completely destroys the humidity of the egg chamber and 
will cause a loss of many chicks. 

All the chicks should be out on the twenty-first day. When 
I am satisfied that the hatch is finished, I remove the egg tray, 
allowing the chicks to remain in the incubator until they are 
at least twenty-four hours old. 



SUCCESS WITH INCUBATORS 

INCUBATING AND BROODING EQUALLY IM- 
PORTANT—HATCHING AND RAISING CHICKS 

WILLIAMS BROS. 

THE disappointment to beginners in the poultry business 
could, nine-tenths of them, be avoided if they would 
assume a less experimental strain, and adopt the horse- 
sense principle. Experiments are all right and to be commend- 
ed when confined to the proper sphere, but it seems that most 
people when starting to operate an incubator for the first time 
believe they can improve upon the rules laid down by the makers 
of the machine. They, therefore, put their own ideas in opera- 
tion, often ideas which are diametrically opposed to the rules 
given them, as well as being in opposition to the laws of nature. 

All incubators are not operated alike, and while there is 
more or less similiarity among them, in many cases the rules 
.governing the operation of one make would not prove success- 
ful if applied to another. It seems natural that the maker of 
an incubator should understand his particular machine better 
than a person not so familiar with its mechanism, therefore, 
we strongly recommend to the beginner when starting his in- 
cubator to apply the rules laid down and given him by the 
manufacturer of the particular machine he is operating. After 
he has run it for two ar three hatches, should he find he can im- 
prove upon the printed instructions he has followed, then he 
may do so, but he should by all means use all the good judgment 
he possesses, and mingle with it just as little "theory" as pos- 
sible. 

It is a very simple thing to operate an incubator. In recent 
years wonderful improvements have been made in incubator 
construction, until to-day there are machines on the market 
which are almost perfect. We believe that the best are none 
too good, therefore, would advise purchasers of incubators not 
to consider a few dollars' difference in cost, but to pay a little 
extra if necessary and get a good machine. 

There are a few points we will refer to particularly as they 
may be beneficial to some who are inexperienced in operating 
incubators: 

First. It is highly important to keep the temperature of 
the egg chamber as near 103 degrees Fahrenheit as possible the 
first week of the hatch, but do not lose your equilibrium should 
you find on different occasions that it varies. Sometimes the 
temperature drops to 95, without injury to the eggs. Again, it 
may go up to 107 the latter part of the hatch without serious 
injury, but this is risky business, although some of the best 
hatches we have ever seen have been under just such circum- 
stances. There is nothing gained by such a variation of tem- 
perature, but on the other hand, everything to lose, however, 
we repeat, do not get excited if the temperature varies, but do 
your best to learn to manage your incubator so it will not vary. 

Second The moisture question is about as important as 
any, and should be carefully considered. It is difficult to make 
a rule which will apply to all machines and to all climates. In 
a dry climate, and in warm weather more moisture is required 



than otherwise, and two or three hatches will prove to the 
operator whether the eggs require considerable moisture, very 
little, or none at all. If the chicks develop too rapidly it is 
usually caused by too much moisture, in some cases combined 
with too much heat. This causes them to die in the shell. It 
is far better to have a little moisture in the incubator from the 
beginning to the end of a hatch, rather than to put it in at in- 
tervals and have too much. Rather than guess at the amount 
required, we would much prefer to have a little in the machine 
during the entire hatch, i. e., from the first day to the twenty- 
first. But whatever you do, follow the instructions of the 
manufacturer. 

BOWEL TROUBLE 

Usually the cause of chicks dying the first week of their 
lives may be attributed to improper incubation of the eggs, 
resulting in their coming out of the shells not so strong in con- 
stitution as they should be. By "improper incubation" we 
mean too much or too little heat, or too much or too little mois- 
ture. If the chicks do not come out of the shells strong and 
vigorous, the operator of the incubator should be a close enough 
observer to determine the cause. He can do this by watching 
the chicks develop and studying the process of which so much 
has been written. 

There is no more excuse for improper brooding and feeding 
than there is for improper incubating. While there are many 
first-class makes of brooders on the market, I think there is yet 
room for improvement in some. Poor ventilation of the brood- 
ers is the very root of all evil. It is the cause for chicks dying 
• more than all other causes combined. A brooder which will 
give enough heat and still furnish an abundance of pure fresh 
air is the right thing, but a brooder which will cause the chicks 
to crowd and suffocate is not a success. 

The key-note for feeding should be— "Keep the chicks 
hungry." Learn to feed them just what they will eat up clean, 
no more. Then feed again soon. Keep them busy and hungry. 
Never allow them to become overthirsty, but keep good, clean 
water before them all the time. Never feed sloppy food. We 
believe chicks will grow faster and do better on a dry, well-bal- 
anced diet, than on anything else. Never neglect the chicks 
from the time they are hatched. Any extra attention that can 
be given them out of the ordinary routine of feeding, etc., for 
the first three or four weeks is time well spent, for if they are 
given a good start, they will grow, and develop rapidly, whereas 
if they do not grow from the time they are hatched they never 
will reach the state of perfection they would had they started 
out on their career under more favorable conditions. 

Cleanliness in everything connected with the chicks plays 
an important part, and this department must not be neglected. 

Out here in California we can hatch and raise poultry any 
month in the year, although most of the extensive breeders 
count on getting out the largest number of chicks in January, 
February and March. It makes it very convenient for us in 
breeding and hatching for exhibition specimens, for we know 
just when to hatch the birds in order to have them just right 
and in the pink of condition for the different shows. We our- 
selves raise exhibition S. C. Brown Leghorns exclusively, and 
for the state fairs hatch out our birds about April 1st, and by 
September 15th they are in fine condition. Then for the Dec- 
ember and January shows we hatch a little later. Eastern 
breeders must follow the seasons for doing their hatching, while 
California breeders do not have climate to contend with. 

In conclusion,, to get back to the subject of this article, we 
will say that there are only a few cardinal points to keep in 
mind to be successful, and any person of ordinary intelligence 
can raise poultry artificially if he will only apply himself to the 
business and study the requirements, always keeping foremost 
in mind — "Take every man's counsel, but reserve judgment;" 
then profit and pleasure will go hand in hand. 



47 



THE ADVANTAGES OF INCUBATORS 

THE SOUTH CAROLINA AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION GIVES RELIABLE 
ADVICE AND TELLS HOW SUCCESS MAY BE SECURED— THE ADVANTAGES OF 
POSSESSING AN INCUBATOR— WHERE IT SHOULD BE LOCATED— MUCH DEPENDS 
UPON THE EGGS-ATTENTION TO INCUBATOR AND EGGS— RAISING THE CHICKS 



O. M. WATSON 




N INCUBATOR is necessary for chicks to be hatch- 
ed early in the season. By having early hatched 
chicks much better prices are obtained, and the 
chicks mature earlier in the fall and commence 
laying before winter sets in, and if properly cared 
for a larger number of winter eggs can be obtain- 
ed. By using an incubator hens can be stopped 
from sitting and can commence laying again. 
A much larger number of chickens can be raised on a small lot. 
An incubator is a time saver. It requires fourteen to sixteen 
large hens to cover 200 eggs, and to look after these hens proper- 
ly will require three times as much time as a 200-egg incubator 
will require. It will take eight gallons of oil to the hatch with 
a 200-egg incubator, which, at 15 cents per gallon, will amount 
to SI . 20. It will take half a pint of corn per day to properly 
feed a sitting hen. For six- 
teen hens, four quarts per 
day would be required. Four 
quarts per day for twenty- 
one days would amount to 
eighty-four quarts. With 
corn at 64 cents per bushel 
(two cents per quart), the 
cost of feeding sixteen hens 
for twenty-one days would 
amount to SI. 68. It costs 
less to heat the incubator 
than to feed the hens. By 
having the incubator thor- 
oughly disinfected before the 
eggs are put in we avoid the 
worry and trouble of lice 
and mites. 

WHY MANY PEOPLE FAIL WITH 
INCUBATORS 

A great many people 
have an idea that all that is 
necessary is to get an incu- 
bator, put the eggs in, heat it 

up and let it alone. The advertisements of manufacturers of 
incubators are somewhat responsible for this. A certain 
amount of attention at the proper time is absolutely necessary. 

A man will become interested in an incubator and will buy 
When it comes his hens are not laying much. He wants 
to start it up at once, so he goes out to get the required number 
of egg6. He gets all he can from his friends and gets the balance 
from the store, no matter what sort of weather they have been 
through nor how long they have been kept, no matter what 
sort of hens laid them nor what sort of care the hens had. All 
he L-. looking for is eggs. He puts his incubator anywhere, 
where it will be out of the way and starts it up. He hatches 
about ten per cent of sickly chicks, and then says that the in- 
cubator is worthless and throws it into a shed and give-" it up. 

THE PLACE TO RUN AN INCUBATOR 

The proper place to run an incubator is in a room or cellar 




40— ACTIVE. HEALTHY CHICKENS 



where the temperature is not variable. The greatest trouble 
with a cellar is too much moisture. No matter if the temper- 
ature in the room is high or low, so it is not subjected to sudden 
changes. A brick cellar where it is not too moist is the best 
place. By having a story above, the room is not affected by 
the heat from the sun and the thick brick walls do not cool off 
as quickly when it is very cold outside. A great deal of trouble 
can be avoided by having the incubator in a room of this sort. 
The room should be well ventilated so as to have a constant 
circulation of pure air. Do not run the incubator in a draught. 

THE KIND OF EGGS TO HAVE 

A great deal depends upon the kind of eggs you have to put 
in an incubator (or under a hen). The eggs should be fresh 
and from good healthy, vigorous stock. As the eggs are 

gathered day by day they 
should be kept where they 
will not get too cold or too 
warm. Select eggs as near 
even size and color as pos- 
sible. The eggs should be 
turned once a day to keep 
the yolk suspended in the 
center. It is best not to 
keep eggs more than two 
weeks. The fresher they 
are the better. 

CARE OF INCUBATORS 

The incubator should be 
started up several days be- 
fore the eggs are put in. 
Heat slowly and gradually 
turn up the flame. Watch 
it constantly, and when the 
thermometer registers 103, 
screw the nut on the con- 
necting rod until the cap 
over the lamp is raised about 
one-eighth of an inch. It is important to know that the reg- 
ulator is working all right before the eggs are put in. After 
the temperature is regulated, put in the eggs and close the 
doors, and do not open them for forty-eight hours. It takes 
the eggs from thirty-six to forty-eight hours to get warmed 
through, so do not be surprised to find that the thermometer 
does not register 103 right off. Just keep the flame as you 
had it before the eggs were put in. 

The lamp should be filled and cleaned and the wick trimmed 
every night. This insures a good steady flame through the 
night. 

After the eggs have been in the incubator forty-eight hours, 
they should be taken out and turned twice every day. It is 
not necessary to turn them completely over each time, but just 
enough to keep the yolks from settling to one side. 

On the seventh day the eggs should be tested and the infer- 
tile ones taken out. This is done by inclosing a lamp in a box, 



48 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION 



with a hole in one side the shape of an egg. Hold a fresh egg 
up to the light and it looks perfectly clear. When a fertile egg 
has been incubated seven days, a dark spot surrounded by a 
network of small veins can be seen. All eggs that still look 
clear after the seven days' incubation, are infertile and should 
be taken out. These infertile eggs can be used for cooking or 
can be boiled and fed to the young chickens. On the tenth and 
fourteenth days the eggs should be tested and the dead eggs 
removed. 



The chickens will commence to hatch on the nineteenth and 
twentieth days. After the hatch commences, do not open the; 
door of the incubator until the end of the twenty-first day. A 
great many of the details of the management of an incubator 
have to be learned by experience. Full directions for operat- 
ing accompany each incubator and should be carefully studied 
before the incubator is started up. There are quite a number 
of good incubators on the market. Avoid buying an inferior 
machine because it is cheap. 



THE MORTALITY OF CHICKS 

AN INTERESTING INVESTIGATION INTO THE CAUSES OF DEATH IN INCUBATOR 
CHICKS, AND THE MEASURES THAT WILL PREVENT SAME— MORTALITY GREATER 
AMONG FEMALE CHICKS THAN AMONG MALE CHICKS— FAULTY INCUBATION 



JAMES R. COVERT 




HE rapid growth of the poultry industry within • 

recent years has been largely influenced by the 

perfection of the incubator. True, high priced 

meat has been a factor,, but the setting hen 

has long since been distanced, and commercial 

poulterers could do little without the incubator. 

Just now the topic of greatest interest is 

"what incubator shall I buy? Which is best?" 

Singulraly, every one who has at any time run an incubator. 

feels qualified to give advice. 

In buying an incubator, two things may be remembered 
to advantage. No machine can hatch an infertile egg and no 
machine is fool proof. In other words, our first consideration 
should be fertility and vitality in the egg; secondly, intelligent 
faithful manipulation of the incubator. These statements are 
repeated in substance many thousands of times by incubator 
manufacturers; they are hoary-headed truisms, but ever new to 
the tyro. 

The feeling that the "latest is the best" is common to many. 
Without knowing why, these persons insist on having the very 
latest and their satisfaction and sense of security when the 
latest is finally purchased are so great that neglect of ordinary 
and reasonable precautions often follow to the detriment of an 
otherwise good hatch. 

While much greater perfection in the art of constructing 
ingenious contrivances for incubation does not seem probable 
for the future, the case is different with brooding. The great 
mortality among incubator chickens is an engrossing subject. 
In this connection the results of post-mortem examinations 
into the cause of death of 826 incubator chickens, a study recent- 
ly made in Rhode Island, are interesting and instructive. 

These studies were made for the purpose of ascertaining 
with as much certainty as practicable the proportion of in- 
cubated chickens which die, the causes of death, and what 
measures are best adapted to check the losses. 

CHIEF CAUSES OF MORTALITY 

Of the 826 dead chickens examined, 387, or about 47 per 
cent., were males, and 439, or 53 per cent, were females. Thus, 
it would appear that the mortality among females chicks is 
greater. 

The diseases discovered as a result of the post-mortem 
examination range themselves under four different heads: (1) 
hereditary or faulty incubation; (2) mechanical causes; (3) im- 
perfect sanitation; (4) improperly balanced rations. 

First, to heredity and faulty incubation may be ascribed 
the deaths that occur before extrusion and the abnormalities. 



Recent experiments conducted in Germany demonstrate that 
alternate periods of heat and cold occuring during incubation 
influence very largely the proportion of cripples. Of the 826 
dead chickens examined, 33 per cent, died as a result of heredi- 
tary weaknesses or faulty incubation. The weakness exhibited 
by these chicks resulted in a greater liability to disease or in 
abnormalities. Fifty eggs selected from certain breeding pens 
were incubated. Of the 50 eggs, 27 proved fertile, 19 chicks 
hatched, and of these 19 only 12 remained alive at the end of 
ten days. Six of the dead chickens were tuberculous and all 
of them had enlarged gall bladders. 

Not one of that lot reached maturity. The excessive mor- 
tality is attributed to congenital weakness, since chicks from 
other parents did well under exactly similar conditions. 

EFFECTS OF INHERITED WEAKNESS 

Constitutional weakness may manifest itself in those cases 
where the yolk is not absorbed at the normal rate. Just pre- 
vious to pipping, the unassimilated remnant of the yolk of the 
egg is drawn within the body cavity of the young chick. This 
yolk sac is connected by a narrow tube with the intestine and 
through this tube the liquified yolk enters the intestine, there to 
undergo digestion and absorption. This yolk within the body 
cavity of the young chick provides it with proper pabulum until 
the chick has gained sufficient strength to provide additional 
nourishment through the mouth. While the young chick is 
gradually acquiring strength, this unassimilated yolk within its 
body is gradually disappearing as the chick is able to assim- 
ilate larger and larger quantities of food by the mouth, until, 
finally, at the end of perhaps a week, under natural condi- 
tions, the yolk has practically disappeared — absorbed into the 
alimentary canal and there assimilated as required. 

Now if this process of absorption is unreasonably delayed, 
whether by reason of abnormalities, congenital weakness, or an 
over abundance of food through the mouth, the food provided 
by nature as best suited to the chick fails of assimilation, weak- 
ness results, the unabsorbed yolk decomposes, and the chick 
is poisened — "bowel trouble," it is called. In a large propor- 
tion of the chicks in this experiment which died just previous 
to hatching, the yolk had not been drawn into the body cavity, 
and 13.3 per cent, of the chickens which hatched, but subse- 
quently died, showed trouble connected with the yolk sac. 

Mechanical causes, many of them clearly preventable, oc- 
casion the death of many chicks. Means of prevention sug- 
gest themselves to all who are familiar with the details of brood- 
ing, and no extended discussion is deemed necessary. 

Imperfect sanitation, poor ventilation, and want of sun- 



49 



ARTIFICIAL INVl HATING AND BROODING 



light are fruitful causes of high mortality, notwithstanding the 
Fad that young chicks arc generally allowed as much liberty 
- s consistent with satisfactory growth. 

TRK\ ULENCE OF rUBERCULOSlS 

More than IS per cent, of the post-mortems in this study 
revealed the presence of tuberculosis— the bacillus was located 

in the dark, poorly ventilated brooders, and it was here that 
the chicks contracted this most insidious disease. Many a 
person casually examining a brooder is misled by the fact that 
it is scrupulously clean and absolutely louseless, and overlook 
the danger of infection from tuberculosis, a disease very prev- 
alent among fowls. German statistics show that 10 per cent. 
of the adult fowls killed in that country are tuberculous. 

Of the 15.1 per cent, tuber- 
culous fowls examined in this 
study, 113 chicks had tubercles 
in the lungs, 5 on the walls of 
the heart, 5 on the walls of the 
gizzard, and 1 on the intestines. 
The lungs, then, appear to be 
the principal seat of infection, 
over 90 per cent, of the diseas- 
ed chickens having tuberculous 
lungs. Tuberculosis is to be 
suspected when whitish, cheesy 
lumps appear on any of the in- 
ternal organs, and, as a matter 
of precaution, the lungs of fowls 
should not be utilized as food. 

Sunlight was found to be 
the most efficient and cheapest 
germicide. Affected hovers were 
removed from the brooders and 
set in the full sunlight and al- 
lowed to air for a day. This 
simple expedient reduced the 
evidence of tuberculosis in the 
infected brooders from 50 per 
cent, to only 3 per cent. 

Congestion of the lungs, due 
to sudden alterations of the 
temperature and exposure, 
claimed a large percentage of 
victims, 243 chickens, or 29.4 
per cent, of the mortality, being 
attributed, more or less correct- 
ly, to this trouble. 




41— WHITE LEGHORNS IN A LONG CLOSED-FRONT HOUSE 



DIGESTIVE DIFFICULTIES 

But the greatest interest attaches to the study of those 
cases showing symptoms of indigestion. Of the 826 chicks 
which died of disease, 625, or 75.6 per cent, had more or less 
trouble with the gall bladder — closure of the gall duct, leading 
to an enormous accumulation of gall, and a paleness of the 
intestines. This condition is readily recognizable in the living 
chick. The green gall stains adjacent organs and the abdo- 
minal wall and a distinctly green erea is conspiouous outside 
tha abdominal wall, close to the posterior edge of the breast 
bone, on the right side of the midline. The affected area ap- 
pears a.-; though mortification had set in, even before death. 

'Jo ascertain the cause of this accumulation of gall and 
consequent mortality, a feeding experiment was instituted. 
J o u p< ■' of approximately 60 chicks each, all conditions being 
identical, were fed a varying ration. 

I o pen No. 1 equal parts of egg (from the incubator) liver, 
and grain, boiled together and chopped fine, were fed. Green 



food in abundance, consisting of sliced onion, oat sprouts, etc> 
was fed. 

To pen No. 2 was fed grain and green stuff — no animal 
protein. The mortality in this pen was 9.5 per cent., of which 
75 per cent, was due to digestive trouble. 

To pen No. 3 grain alone was fed — animal protein and 
green stuff were omitted. Mortality 32.7 per cent., of which 
76.5 per cent, was due to digestive trouble. 

To pen No. 4 was given egg, liver and green stuff — no grain. 
In this case the mortality was 63.7 per cent., of which 85.8 per 
cent, was due to digestive trouble. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF A BALANCED RATION 

This feeding experiment very strikingly indicates the ne- 
cessity of a well-balanced ra- 
tion for young chicks. If 
chicks immediately after or even 
before death show this green 
area on the right side, the 
amount of meat in the diet 
should be increased. The weights 
of the chickens surviving in the 
above feeding experiment, taken 
at the close of the test, very 
forcibly demonstrated the fact 
that the increased amount of 
animal protein, in combination 
with the grain ration, not only 
reduced the mortality due to 
indigestion, but also caused a 
more rapid growth than was 
observed in the case of chicks 
not similarly fed. 

For the purpose of provid- 
ing a better balanced ration for 
young chicks, the author has 
instituted a' feeding experiment 
of his own, using blood meal 
as a source of animal protein. 
Blood meal is well-known as a 
specific in calf scours, and from 
its abnormally high content of 
animal protein, its use in feeding 
young chicks is expected to re- 
duce to a minimum the mortal- 
ity from bowel trouble. Compar- 
ed with animal protein derived 
from other sources, such as beef 
scrap, its use would appear to be more economical, yet it is 
not thought desirable to make blood meal the only source of 
animal protein in feeding young chicks. 



A NEW EGG TESTER 

AN ORDINARY CALCIUM CARBIDE BICYCLE 
LANTERN WILL GIVE ADMIRABLE RESULTS 

J. D. STEVENS 

THE following may be of interest to many incubator 
operators who, like the writer, ride a bicycle, and fre- 
quently have to avail themselves of the use of a bicycle 
lantern in getting home on a dark night. 

The lantern we use is a calcium carbide which, as is well 
known, needs only the application of water to generate acet- 



50 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION 



lyne gas, which burns with a perfectly white light and with 
great brilliancy. 

Having occasion to use the egg tester on an incubator 
full of eggs, we decided to try the lantern for that purpose, 
and after having fitted over the lens a piece of black enamel 
cloth with a hole in it, we discovered much to our surprise 
and gratification, that it was far ahead of any so-called egg 
tester we had ever used. The intense white light seemed to 
make the egg about as nearly transparent as is possible, and 
in dark shell eggs we had no difficulty in detecting the 
fertile eggs at the end of the third day of incubation, the 
minute blood vessels being distinctly discernible. We shall 
continue to use the lantern hereafter in preference to the 
regular tester, because of its unquestionable superiority. 

We advise those who have a carbide lantern to try it. 

There is also a hint in this to the manufacturers of egg 
testers. 



THE HATCHING OF CHICKS 

THE IMPORTANCE OF CORRECT TEMPER- 
ATURE IN INCUBATORS— LOCATION MUST 
BE DRY— HATCH THE CHICKS EARLY 

W. F. CHAMBERLAIN 

I RAISE and keep from one thousand to fifteen hundred 
chickens each season, and if I can give any information 
that will help a beginner and save him one little chick, I 
will feel well repaid for my trouble. Generally it seems to be 
the best that die; any way we miss them more, and fret ourselves 
with thoughts of what they might have been. It is far better 
to use some precautions, some care and so avoid these troubles. 
See that your eggs come from strong, healthy stock, and do 
not set eggs from stock that you know has been diseased at 
any time, as it will show in your little chicks some time and 
cause you trouble when you least expect it. Use old stock for 
breeding if you can, as I believe old hens and roosters produce 
the best and strongest chicks. If you cannot use old stock, use 
a cockerel with old hens or a cock with pullets. I find that the 
first eggs a hen lays hatch stronger chicks than the last eggs 
she lays, and it might be well to bear this in mind when you 
set your hens or fill your incubators. 

INCUBATORS 

See that your incubator is placed in some place where the 
temperature does not change any more than possible. A bright, 
dry, well-ventilated cellar is certainly an ideal place in which to 
hatch chickens by artificial or natural means, but the air in a 
damp, close cellar will so poison the germs developing in the 
eggs that satisfactory hatches are impossible. If the cellar is 
not dry and has windows that can remain open throughout the 
hatch, the machine should not be located in it. A north room — 
unheated — is far preferable, or an open shed. High-percentage 
hatches can be turned out in an ordinary woodshed with an earth 
floor even during the warm months of June and July. 

Warm up your machine at least twenty-four hours before 
you place your eggs in it, and see that it is perfectly regulated 
and that the temperature is as near one hundred and three 
degrees as possible. When you place your eggs in the machine 
you will notice that the temperature will drop very fast on ac- 



count of the eggs being cold but do not be alarmed, as the 
temperature in the machine will soon rise, and if your machine 
is well regulated, in a few hours the temperature will again be 
up to one hundred and three degrees. A few degrees below one 
hundred and three during the hatch will not cause any trouble, 
but a few degrees above one hundred and three is approaching 
the danger point. You will have to watch the temperature of 
your machine very closely, and run it as near one hundred and 
three as possible. See that the eggs you put in the machine are 
fresh and clean and as even size as possible; that is, do not use 
any great big eggs or any very small ones. Watch the lamp in 
your incubator carefully. Have a regular time to fill and trim 
it, using a match to rub off the charred wick. Hatching chicks 
with an incubator is like any other business, you will have to go 
through just so many ups and downs before you get there, and 
while you can get some good information from your incubator 
catalogue, you will get more lasting information from your first 
few failures, for experience is the best teacher in the chicken 
business as well as in all other business. Do not forget to turn 
and cool your eggs, as the cooling of the egg is life and strength 
to the little chick, and if you do not give this part of the busi- 
ness your careful attention, you will have very poor hatches, 
and those that do hatch will be weak. 

EARLY CHICKS GIVE GOOD RETURNS 

Hatch your chicks as early in the spring as possible, as it 
is the early chicks that count and bring you in good returns, 

because they grow 
quicker, keep heal- 
thier and lay earl- 
ier. Early chicks 
run all day long 
and grow every 
minute in the day, 
while late hatched 
chicks spend most 
of their time hunt- 
ing for some cool, 
shady place, and 
only range a few 
hours morning and 
evening. This lack 
of exercise and feed 
causes them to grow very slowly and in fact they never make the 
growth they should. When your hen comes off with her brood 
in the early spring, see that she is put in a roomy coop and 
that the coop is placed in some dry shed with a window in it, 
so that the little ones can come out and scratch around when 
the ground is dry. Little chicks can stand lots of cold weather 
if kept perfectly dry, and will make wonderful growth. Later 
on when the weather is warmer and the storms are not quite 
so bad you can place the coop under a tree and build a yard 
in front of it, with poultry netting, so that the hen can come 
out and dust herself and enjoy the sunshine while her little 
chicks have free range. You will be surprised how many you 
will raise in this way and how easy it is to take care of them. 
We have had the hotest summer we ever knew, and I hatched 
late and raised about seven hundred Leghorn chicks, and my 
loss was about seven per cent. Considering the weather, this 
was remarkable. It may be a little trouble for you to make 
your hen and chicks comfortable, but you must not hope to 
succeed without this trouble. 




42— AN ACETYLENE LIGHT EGG TESTER 



51 



THK DAY-OLD CHICK INDUSTRY 



^AY-OLD CHICKS A SPKlALT) 




SELLING DAY-OLD CHICKS 

THE SALE OF DAY-OLD CHICKS IS BECOMING POPULAR IN ENGLAND— AN ENGLISH 
FARM DEVOTED TO THIS INDUSTRY— A NOVEL ROOM FOR EIGHTY-FOUR SITTING 
HENS— HOW PAPER BOXES ARE MADE COMFORTABLE FOR SHIPPING THE CHICKS 



FRANKLANE L. SEWELL 



fWQ hundred acres of well kept orchard and veg- 
etable gardens within easy driving distance 
from the London markets, looked like profit- 
able gardening to the writer, whose home is in 
the Michigan fruit belt. 
We passed nearly a half a mile of these 
productive gardens operated by three brothers 
whose fine fowls are well known throughout 
'/rcat Britain, and found ourselves at the picturesque old 
house long ago built by Henry VIII as a "hunting 
box" for Queen Anne Boleyn. This quaint house was 
th*-n at th<- edge of the Windsor forests. Here we found 
the poultry plant well arranged, partly among the plum and 
apple trees and partly over the adjoining meadow. We 
were pleased to find the combination of poultry with fruit 
growing, and to be told that the finest fruit was gathered 
from the trees under which the fowls had liberty throughout 
the season. We asked if the fowls did as well in the open 
idow as in the orchard and were told that they succeeded 
about as well on the open meadow. The birds in the or- 
chard appeared the brightest and most industrious and we 
noticed that most of the breeders and laying hens were yard- 



ed there. The extra work of carrying the fruit out of the 
yards was mentioned as against having the poultry pens 
among the fruit trees. However, it was quite decided that 
the improved quality of the fruit, not counting the increased 
quantity, make up for the extra work. Properly arranged 
gates might make carting of the fruit quite easy. 

ORPINGTONS, WYANDOTTES, LEGHORNS, MINORCAS AND DUCKS 

The breeds kept were Buff Orpingtons, White and Silver 
Laced Wyandottes, Black Leghorns, White Leghorns and 
Black Minorcas; also Aylesbury ducks. These occupied 
four breeding pens next to the incubator house, twenty yards 
in the orchards and twenty yards in the meadow. 

Besides these breeding yards there was one large field 
with a row of fruit trees through the center where 125 laying 
hens were kept; also about two acres of orchard in which 
were eight houses occupied by about 222 laying hens, two 
warm brooding houses with yard attached, and a large cold 
brooding house of eight sections, in which last house the 
youngsters were three to four pounds in weight, just about 
to be changed to the four grassy yards next the brooder 
house. 



52 



THE DAY-OLD CHICK INDUSTRY 



PREFERRED THE "SITTING BREEDS" 

All but the brooding and incubator houses are of portable 
types. We were told that they liked the "sitting breeds" 
best for their business, as they had experienced the best 
success with them in artificial hatching and rearing — found 
them easiest to handle, stronger and not too apt to "go off 
their feed" in cold, bleak weather, and seeming to hatch well 
at almost any season. This was partly a surprise to us as 
some of our earlier experience had led us to class the Med- 
iterraneans among the most fertile breeds. 

We were impressed by the vigor and healthy condition 
of all the stock and inquiring about the feed were told that 
they handled them "on the rough-and-ready scale," plenty 
of good coarse feed — boiled mangles, (large, coarse beets) 
with middlings mixed in until a good consistency is reached 
and then add about 10 per cent of beef scrap or meat meal — 
occasionally barley meal is mixed with the above. The large 
grassy runs explained much towards the birds' strong con- 
stitutions. Whole grains, — corn, wheat and oats, — were be- 
ing fed the large stock for the evening meal. 

At the incubator house we found fifteen incubators, four- 
teen of American pattern and one of an English type. The 
incubator house is single boarded, with windows in the north 
slope of the roof and these were curtained to keep out the 
sun. "The room for sitting hens shades it on the south," 
they explained. It is against the warmth of the sun that 
they guard their incubator rooms over in England. The cold 
that they have is not often so severe as to cause trouble with 
incubation by the best machines. 

MANAGING 84 SITTING HENS IN ONE ROOM 

We have never seen such a handily arranged outfit for 
managing sitting hens. There were eighty-four nests on the 
inside of an alley-way and five airy pens for exercising and 




43— SHIPPING DAY-OLD CHICKS , 

Four dozen day-old chicks shipped in strong; paper boxes, one dozen in each box. Air 
holes are cut with a knife at the center of the upper edges (as shown in the illustration) . 
The four boxes are securely fastened with a cord. 

feeding the hens on the outside of this alley-way, as seen in 
the photograph. Each hen was banded on the leg with the 
number of her nest, so after her time for an outing she could 
be returned to the proper place. The sides of the nests were 
formed by a square sloping frame, which was movable and 
rested upon a continuous board bottom, extending from end 
to end of the tier of nests at a height to bring the top of this 
movable portion level with the bottom of the door. Just 
inside each door was a six inch wide platform, so that if any 
old cluck became restless and would not sit, she had some 
place to dance her jig on besides her clutch of eggs. All 
woodwork was thoroughly whitewashed after each sitting. 



INCUBATORS ARE A NECESSITY 

"Well," we said, after looking this outfit over, "with all 
this handy arrangement, why do you need incubators?" He 
shook his head and replied, "We are in the day-old chick 
business — that's why we have incubators." They want the 
chicks first of all, early — then they want them in large lots — 
not late and irregularly when the good old hens take a notion 
to quit laying and become broody. They keep several hund- 
red hens to supply fresh eggs. These eggs are mostly order- 
ed by dealers whom the elder of the three brothers meets 
when disposing of the vegatables and fruit at Convent Gar- 
den's Market. The restrictions of this market being entirely 
for flowers, fruits and vegetables, it does not permit of dis- 
playing eggs there, but they will meet many grocers who re- 
quire strictly fresh eggs for their trade, so receive many 
orders in that way, the eggs being shipped from the farm 
directly to the shops without being exposed in the market. 

PAPER BOXES FOR SHIPPING THE CHICKS 

We wanted to know more about how the day-old chicks 
were shipped, and were shown into the shipping room where 
the strong paper boxes used by this firm were packed, just as 
they came from the box factory — flat. A box was quickly 
put into shape for shipping — "and what do you put into the 
box to make it soft for comfortable traveling?" Reaching 
for a good-sized handful of soft hay which was bent round 
into a nest-like form inside the box, then for a handful of 
soft feathers, with a couple of strokes round the opening in 
the hay lining, it looked very comfortable, "like a sparrow's 
nest" they explained, and, "it's just comfortable for twelve 
chicks (the number placed in each box) to turn round in and 
keep each other warm." The contents of the box is mark- 
ed on it so no mistake can be made after packing and as 
many dozen tied together as are ordered by each patron. 
The sketch will show where the boxes are cut in the middle 
or upper edges for ventilation. Properly marked for ship- 
ment, and the little orphans are ready to start for their new 
home. The porters of the trains seem to take quite an in- 
terest in the little things and handle them with the greatest 
of care. Often they can be seen listening at the air holes to 
hear the peepings of the wee travelers— and I believe they 
get safer handling in the paste board boxes than when ship- 
ped in the less fragile appearing wooden cases. 

FIFTY DAY-OLD CHICKS ARRIVE SAFELY IN GERMANY 

This firm has sent day-old chicks to the Isle of Wight, 
and up into Scotland. Another order that no doubt requir- 
ed quite as much handling and changing about with as much 
time as would be required for any shipment of a thousand 
miles in America, was a lot of fifty-day old chicks that went 
to a gentleman near Berlin, Germany. We saw a letter from 
the customer, stating that all had arrived alive. Fifty were 
.sent to Southport (250 miles) with only one dead, and 250 to 
the Isle of Wight, all arrived safely. 

Just twice as much for day-old chicks is received by 
this firm as for the eggs for hatching, and they had hatched 
an average the past season of 250 chicks from 360 eggs (with 
the sitting breeds) and had good sales from January to June, 
so they were very well satisfied with the profits from their 
season's trade in day-old chicks. 

There seems every reason that our breeders in the United 
States and Canada should enlarge the profits from their 
poultry farms by adopting a method of selling day-old chicks. 

The method of gathering the eggs for hatching is worthy 
of mention. The care and the system of record employed is 
such that a mistake in breed or number is almost impossi- 
ble. The eggs from the large flocks of laying hens of 
course needed no regard as to record of pedigree, only to be 
sorted as to size and color. 



53 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING 



HATCHING CHICKS FOR SALE 

\ PARMER RUNS 11 INCUBATORS— 2S 
NEIGHBORING FARMERS SUPPLY EGGS 

A. V. HUNTER 

WE BEAR poultryrnen say, now and then, that they 
hatch chickens for their neighbors at 5 cents a piece, 
or some agreed upon price and occasionally we bear 
of cases where men having incubators have taken up the work 
of hatching chickens for others as an additional source of in- 
come. It has frequently occured to us that there were great 
possibilities in this direction; that a man who had a faculty of 
operating incubators successfully could make a good living by 
hatching chicks for farmers who were too busy, or not sufficiently 
well equipped to do the hatching themselves. Hatching chicks 
for others is no new tiling, as we know of the celebrated Egyp- 
tian hatching ovens, in the operation of which men make a live- 
lihood and where the usual method is to pay two eggs for a 
newly hatched chick. These Egyptian hatchers must be re- 
markably successful in their operations, if they can deliver a 
chick for two eggs and make their profit out of the marketing 
of the hatch. Undoubtedly they do make a profit, else they 
would not continue in the business. As it is the concensus of 
opinion that an average of a 50 per cent hatch is all that can 
reasonably be expected, taking the season through, our American 
incubator operators would hardly make a living hatching upon 
that basis. We know a gentleman in Canada who has been 
quite successful in building up a hatching trade. He began by 
hatching for some of his neighbors, charging them five cents per 
egg for the use of the machine and his trouble; from that it was 
an easy step to hatching his own eggs and selling newly hatched 
chicks, and without any advertising he has developed a consid- 
erable trade in newly hatched chicks and in some instances has 
shipped them to considerable distances. 

We know of one man in New Jersey who has successfully 
shipped in the east to Maine and New Hampshire, as far west as 
Dakota and Nebraska and as far south as Florida, and the 
sample testimonials as to the condition of the chicks on arrival 
indicate that there are scarcely any losses and that the shipping 
of chicks even to these great distances is entirely successful. 

A visit to this "hatchery" gave us some interesting points 
and a brief account of the methods employed will not only be 
interesting, but will point out the way to others taking up this 
porfitable line of work. 



The owner of this plant uses 77 incubators and is apparently 
making money out of the new-old venture. He buys his eggs 
for hatching from farmers thereabouts, whom he has induced 
to keep good, thoroughbred stock for the purpose. There are 
about twenty-five of these farmers now supplying him with 
eggs and he pays them five cents a dozen above market price. 

The cliicks are Barred Plymouth Rocks and White Leg- 
horns, these being popular farm varieties. He has also added 
Bull Plymouth Rocks to his list and for these he gets a higher 
price because the eggs are harder to get. 

It is surprising to learn that he does not test the eggs at all, 
his statement being that he had thought it did not pay to bother 
to test them. In this we disagree with him, because the abso- 
lutely clear eggs tested out by the fifth or sixth day could be sold 
to bakers and used in many ways. They form excellent food 
for cliicks and would be so much salvage. He told us that from 
360 eggs in each machine he averaged to ship 1 75 to 200 chicks. 

The cliicks are shipped when about twenty-four hours old 
in shallow, flat boxes which are about seven inches deep. A 
burlap cover is tacked over them about 3$ inches from the 
bottom, or half way from the bottom to top of the box. No 
other covering is put over them, excepting that in cold weather 
there will be two thicknesses of burlap. According to the 
number of chicks to be shipped. 

Ordinary boxes are bought of the grocers, and if they are 
more than eight inches high they are cut down to the desired 
size. A box, say two and one-half feet long by ten or twelve 
inches wide, would have a partition in, dividing it in halves, and 
fifty to seventy-five chicks will be put in each end. These boxes 
are all made ready and the burlap cover tacked on, with the 
exception of two or three tacks out of one corner (or one corner 
of each compartment if it is a long box divided in halves); the 
chicks are slipped in through the untacked corner, which is then 
secured in place and the package is ready for the expressman. 
At the time of our visit a man was busy preparing these shipping 
boxes and was kept busy at that work four or five days in a 
week. This gives one an idea of the extent of the business. A 
strip of cover-board four or five inches wide is nailed on top to 
tack the shipping tag onto, and the shipment is complete. 

This is a veiy interesting story, and tells much as to the 
possibilities of the development of the poultry interest. Here 
is a man shipping newly hatched chicks all over the United 
States, even as far west as Nebraska and Dakota and as far 
south as Florida. The question arises: "Why are there not 
hundreds of hatching stations, scattered say one or two in each 
county, to do the hatching for those who do not care to do it 
themselves?" 




tfc£S3£jCj v"-,."" J 



54 



ARTIFICIAL BROODING 




SUCCESSFUL BROODER OPERATION 

INDIVIDUAL BROODERS— THE WAY TO MANAGE THEM— HOW AND WHERE TO 
LOCATE THEM— THE NUMBER OF CHICKS TO THE BROODER— PROPER BROODING 
TEMPERATURE AT DIFFERENT AGES— GETTING READY FOR THE CHICKS, ETC. 



P. T. WOODS, M. D. 




S soon as the hatching season has well begun, 
attention is naturally turned toward the proper 
means of brooding the newly hatched chicks. 
For the beginner brooding by the individual 
brooder method will undoubtedly give the most 
satisfactory results. Nearly all of the leading 
makes of brooding devices give satisfactory 
results when operated under favorable condi- 
tions. In most cases the outdoor style of brooder will 
prove the most satisfactory since it may be used under a greater 
variety of conditions. Where indoor brooders are used they 
must necessarily be run in a house or room of some sort through- 
out the entire season while outdoor brooders may be run under 
shelter or in a house during the early part of the season and 
then removed to the orchard or field after the weather has be- 
come warmer and more settled, and the houses or shelters may 
then be devoted to growing stock or to other uses. 

In buying a brooder be sure to obtain one of standard make 
from a reliable manufacturer. The best is none too good. As 
a rule, it will not be wise for an amateur to attempt raising 
chicks with a home-made brooding device, as such are seldom 
properly constructed and often cost more than the well-made, 
properly built machines sold by reputable manufacturers. Do 
not buy a brooder simply because it is cheap. Remember that 
the best is the cheapest in the end and that the little extra 
money expended at the start will be more than offset by the sav- 
ing in losses and the ease in caring for the chicks. The best 
individual brooding devices are those which supply a consider- 
able volume of. top heat combined with just enough bottom 
heat to give a warm floor in the hover apartment. A properly 
constructed brooder will be so made that it is entirely self- 
ventilating, drawing pure fresh air from outside of the machine, 
carrying it up and distributing it beneath the hover and around 



the chicks so that they are always supplied with pure fresh 
warm air while the brooding apartment is maintained at the 
proper temperature. 

LOCATING THE BROODER 

During March and April it is best to run the individual 
brooder of outdoor pattern in a small house or at least under 
a shed or shelter. Personally I prefer to use a house having 
a floor space 6 by 8 or 8 by 10 feet according to the size of the 
brooder. Such a house should have a door and a glass or can- 
vas window in its south front. It should be so arranged that 
the door and window can be kept open throughout the day 
and a wire screen should be provided to keep the chicks inside 
if the weather is not favorable for their having an outdoor 
run. When so placed the chicks have a good sheltered exercise 
room outside of the brooder on the floor of the house where 
they are protected from wind and storm. The operator will 
also find such a location for his brooder much more convenient 
for attending the lamp and caring for the chicks. Here in 
New England many such brooding houses are in use and they 
are particularly desirable because of the sudden and extreme 
weather changes occurring during the early spring. A house 
of this sort if placed in a well-drained, dry location may have 
an earth or sand floor; as a rule a tight board floor is best since 
it affords protection against dampness and also keeps out rats 
and other marauding vermin. If a board floor is used, cover 
it with an inch or two of sand. 

After the weather has become settled in May and June 
the brooders may be run beneath a tree in the orchard or may 
be located in the open field. Later in the season when run in 
the open field it is a wise plan to provide a sun shelter for both 
a portion of the chick run and the brooder itself, since it is al- 
most impossible to run any brooder at anything like an even 



55 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING 



temperature when it is exposed to the full glare of the sun for 

the greater part of the day. 

When placing the brooder in position do not make any ex 
ation to receive it. but place it on the top of the ground, 
making it as level as possible, l'se a spirit level on the floor 
of the hover apartment from side to side and front to back 
to make sure that the brooder is leveled up properly. Unless 
the brooder is level the heat will not be distributed evenly. If 
with the brooder in this position it does not fit down tightly 
to the ground on all sides, bank up around it with a little earth 
so that the wind cannot blow under it. If the door by which 
the chicks leave the brooder is not on a level with the ground, 
make a little inclined run-way of earth and sod leading up to 
it from the ground. Two or three pieces of sod turned upside 
down make the best sort of inclined run-way and with ordinary 
attention will last as long as needed. Do not use a board for 
this purpose. Where a board run-way is used the chicks are 
liable to get beneath it or lose their way when very young and 
fail to get into the brooder and beneath the hover before they 
are chilled. With an earthen sod run-way the chicks will learn 
to find their way in and out in a very short time and the operator 
will be saved a great deal of unnecessary trouble. 

THE BROODER LAMP 

There are many styles of brooder lamps, a number of which 
seem to be more in favor in some sections of the country than 
in others. It should be borne in mind that the brooder stove 
or lamp, like all other kerosene heating apparatus, is very liable 
to give trouble unless properly cared for. A brooder stove or 
lamp has to run for many weeks without an opportunity to 
thoroughly cool off and rest and therefore should be treated 
with much greater care than an ordinary house lamp which is 
only run for a small portion of the 24 hours. The brooder lamp 
must be kept clean, particularly the burner portion. The wick 
tube should be kept free from accumulations of crusts, the 
burner should be kept as bright and clean as possible and the 
perforated disc about the wick tube must be kept clean and 
bright and free from dirt; its perforations must be kept open. 
The wick should be trimmed daily and should be slightly round- 
ed at the corners to prevent burning with a fish-tail flame. A 
flame of fish-tail shape is liable to result in one or both sides of 
the flame burning too high, reaching against the chimney part 
of the stove or other metal parts and causing smoking, which 
is almost certain to bring disastrous results. 

Of the two types of brooder stoves in most common use 
the style with chimney made of Russia iron held together with 
iron castings and fitted with water pan above the oil bowl and 
the chimneyless lamp equipped with a zenith or railroad burner, 
are probably the most common. The stoves with the water 
pan, when run in the old-fashioned way with the pan filled with 
water, are sloppy and disagreeable to care for and the pan must 
be kept always full of water, or else the insulation of the oil 
bowl is not complete. The writer prefers to fill up the water 
pan with asbestos cement, such as is used by plumbers for in- 
sulating portions of hot-water heating apparatus. This asbestos 
can be obtained in a dry form and is easily made ready for use 
by simply mixing it with sufficient water to reduce it to a putty- 
like consistency. The water pan may be filled full of this and 
it will soon harden, making a good insulating body that will 
insure protection of the oil bowl from the heat of the lamp flame 
When this asbestos insulation becomes old, soiled, or should oil 
be spilled upon it, it can be readily removed and replaced with 
new at the expense of a few cents. 

Use only the beet grade of kerosene oil in the brooder 
lamp and be sure to keep the lamp full, fill it twice a day if 
necessary. When running the brooder in cold weather it is a 
wise plan to fill the lamp twice a day, morning and night. In 
warm weather when operating with a low lamp flame it will 



seldom be necessary to fill the lamp oftener than once in 24 
hours. Never turn a brooder lamp so high that it cannot be 
turned higher without smoking and never turn it so low that 
you cannot turn the flame a little lower without the lamp going 
out. If these directions are observed and ordinary common 
sense care given to the lamp there will be very seldom any trouble 
from the kerosene heater used for individual brooders. 

Nearly all brooder lamps are pushed in place on a wooden 
slide. Be sure to see that the lamp is in its proper position. 
In brooders having a metal floor, with a place for the lamp 
to sit immediately beneath the central portion of this metal 
floor, care should be taken to see that it is correctly placed, 
since if the lamp sits to one side the brooder will not heat as 
evenly. Where there is any tendency for the lamp to heat up 
it will be found more satisfactory to have the bottom of the 
lamp rest on the earth beneath the brooder rather than on the 
wooden slide, since the oil will be kept cooler in such a position. 
For convenience the writer prefers to cut a circular hole through 
the lamp slide big enough to admit the bottom of the lamp; 
across the bottom of this opening I fasten two iron or tin straps 
to keep the lamp from settling beneath the lower level of the 
slide. This leaves practically the whole bottom of the lamp 
exposed to the earth beneath the brooder, keeping the oil much 
cooler. 

GETTING READY FOR THE CHICKS 

When the little chicks are expected to hatch have the 
brooder heated up and ready to receive them. Over the floor 
of the brooder, in both the hover chamber and exercise apart- 
ment, sprinkle a little fine sand, over this about one-half inch 
deep, place cut clover, chaff or other fine fitter material. In 
this may be sprinkled a little chick grit and a good dry grain 
chick food. Run the brooder for a day or two before the chicks 
are placed in it to be sure that it is running properly and to get 
it thoroughly heated up. The temperature beneath the hover 
before the chicks are placed in the brooder should register 95 
degrees in brooders having a wooden hover. In brooders having 
a metal hover, which supplies a portion of the top heat of the 
hover space, the temperature should be at about 90 degrees at 
the start. The little chicks should not be placed in the brooder 
until they are from 24 to 36 hours old. It wll be the wisest 
plan to put them in the brooder in the afternoon so that they 
can have a little time for the first meal and then go early to bed 
for the night. When the chicks are treated in this maimer they 
learn more quickly to use the hover and to find their way back 
and forth. If they are placed in the brooder in the morning 
and spend the whole of their first day there, they are liable to 
huddle more or less in the corners and may become chilled. 

PROPER BROODING TEMPERATURE 

As will be noted in what has gone before, brooders having 
a wooden hover should be run at a little higher temperature 
than those which have a metal hover supplying a considerable 
radiating surface for distributing heat beneath it. In brooders 
having a wooden hover run the hover space temperature at 95 
degrees for the first week, gradually dropping to 90 degrees 
the fourteenth day. Continue reducing the temperature to 80 
degrees by the twenty-first day, dropping to 75 degrees by the 
end of the fourth week. For the balance of the time which the 
chicks remain in the brooder maintain a hover space temperature 
of about 75 degrees. 

In brooders having a metal drum hover start with the 
hover space heated to 90 degrees with the thermometer in its 
proper position (all brooder manufacturers indicate the posi- 
tion where the thermometer should be placed). Maintain the 
temperature as near 90 degrees as possible the first week, grad- 
ually dropping to 85 degrees by the fourteenth day and to 80 de- 
grees by the twenty-first day. Reduce the temperature to 75 de- 



56 



ARTIFICIAL BROODING 



grees by the end of the fourth week and run at this temperature 
while the chicks remain in the brooder. These temperatures 
are given for the hover space when the chicks are outside. 
The operator should always aim to keep the chicks comfortable 
and to be guided fully as much by the appearance and actions 
of the chicks as by the temperature indicated by the thermome- 
ter. Many experienced operators running individual brooders 
pay no attention whatever to the thermometer, depending on 
the appearance and actions of the chicks to guide them. Their 
rule is to have sufficient heat under the hover so that the chicks 
will be comfortable. When they are warm enough the little 
chicks will be found ranged about the edge of the hover with 
their heads peeping from beneath the felt. If they are not 
warm enough they will be bunched up out of sight underneath 
the hover or will show a tendency to huddle and crowd. If 
allowed to remain in such condition, they will be almost certain 
to be chilled by morning. It is always wise to have a little sur- 
plus heat at night. In apartment brooders where the chicks 
have an opportunity to get away from the source of the 
heat there is very little danger of their becoming overheated. 
When they are warm enough to stay around the edge of 
the hover at bedtime they will, when the brooder cools off 
as the night grows colder, gradually draw nearer the 
source of heat underneath the hover and so keep comfort- 
able all night. If a brooder operator will carefully and 
closely observe the habits of his chicks he will have little 
difficulty in properly brooding them. 

In running the brooder on warm nights it may be 
found advisable, where double felt curtains surround the 
hover, to raise the outer row of felts, or in metal drum 
brooders having removable felts, to remove the felts 
altogether. 

It is probable that more of the troubles which beset 
the amateur in raising brooder chicks are caused by either 
overheating or chilling the chicks than from faulty feed- 
ing. It is as dangerous to overheat them as it is to chill 
them. The well made, modern, up-to-date brooder, if 
properly operated, will readily take care of temperature 
changes occurring outside of the machine of from 10 to 
15 degrees, but where there are greater changes than these 
it will be necessary to provide promptly for offsetting them 
by either turning the lamp flame up or down as needed. 

THE NUMBER OF CHICKS TO THE BROODER 

As a rule brooder manufacturers rate the capacity of 
their brooding devices much too high for practical purposes. 
Seventy-five or even 100 newly hatched chicks may be 
placed in the brooder having a brooding apartment 36 
inches square with a hover two feet in diameter, but 
such a brooder is not adequate for raising this number of 
chicks to weaning age. Fifty chicks to be carried to weaning 
age are enough for one flock in any brooder. It will be much 
wiser for the beginner to start his brooder with only fifty 
chicks, since, if more are placed in the machine he is almost 
certain to lose some of them until they thin the flock down 
to that number or below it. 

SUGGESTIONS AS TO BROODER MANAGEMENT 

When the chicks are first placed in the brooder give each a 
little drink of pure fresh water by dipping its bill. After this 
keep water where they can have access to it at all times, but do 
not place water dishes in the hover chamber where they can 
slop over and wet the floor and fitter material. In addition to 
the chick food and grit, sprinkled in the litter, give the little 
chicks for their first meal a little dry stale bread crumbs barely 
moistened with sweet milk. Feed this for the first two days, 
then discontinue and feed exclusively on dry mixed grain chick 
food. After the fourth day keep good pure beef scrap con- 



stantly before the chicks; also see that they are supplied with 
chick-size grit and charcoal. Green food should be given early 
and fed at regular intervals. 

In brooders having removable wooden hovers, take off the 
hover while the chicks are being fed during the first week. In 
this way you will make sure that all the chicks come out from 
under the hover and get a chance at the food. 

Do not permit any weaklings in your brooder flock. Weak- 
ly chicks are not worth raising and serve only as a setback to 
the healthy ones. It will be best to put them out of the way 
before they prove a source of injury to the balance of the flock. 

After the chicks have occupied the brooder 24 to 36 hours 
they should be provided with a little outside run; limit this run 
at first to a short distance beyond the inclined run-way and do 
not have it wider than the front of the brooder. Increase the 
size of this run gradually as the chicks become accustomed to 
their new quarters. Watch them closely for the first few days 
to make sure that they do not crowd or bunch up outside of the 




44— OUT-DOOR BROODER IN SHADY LOCATION 

machine and help them to learn their way to and from the hover, 
which is the source of heat. 

Be sure to always leave the ventilators partly open; never 
attempt to entirely close up the brooder; the chicks must have 
an abundance of fresh air to breathe if you are to raise them. 
Every day, if possible, sun and air the interior of the brooder 
and when practicable expose the under side of the hovers and 
the felts to the direct rays of the sun for a little time each day. 
Where the chicks are confined in chick shelters or small wire 
enclosed runs, remove the brooders to fresh ground at least 
once in two weeks. 

In the early spring brooder chicks will do much better in 
moderate sized runs than if allowed wider range. Later in the 
season they may be given larger runs, but it is a wise plan to 
keep them somewhat confined until they are large enough to 
be weaned from the brooder, since they are liable to injury 
from sudden storms unless they are kept within easy distance 
from shelter. After weaning from the brooder and removal to 
colony coops the wider range they have the better. 



57 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING 



KEEP THE BROODERS k"l 1 \\ 

Change the litter and replaoe with new litter material and 
sand at least onoe a week. The brooder must be cleaned often 

and kept elean. After the brood has been weaned be sure to 
thoroughly elean and disinfect the brooder and thoroughly scour 
the Boor and sides of both brooding and exercise chamber with 
good yellow soap and water. If a little creolin or other non- 
poisonous disinfectant can be added to the water so much the 
better; if creolin is vised, add one teaspoonful to each quart of 
water used for scrubbing. After washing ont the brooder, dry 
as thoroughly as possible and then expose the parts to strong 
sunlight. If possible place the brooder when- it will be in a 
Strong current of fresh air, as this will materially aid in the dry- 
ins; and cleansing process. Remember always that sunlight is 
the best natural disinfectant and purifier and that thorough 
exposure of the interior of the brooder to sunlight will do more 
to kill disease germs than anything else. 

Where brooders have been in use for some time and the 
woodwork has become stained and darkened it is a good plan 
to give the interiors a thin even coat of good hot whitewash. 
Do not add disinfectants to whitewash used on the interior of 



CARE OF BROODER AND CHICKS 

PREPARATION FOR THE CHICKS-SIMPLE 
METHODS PRODUCE POSITIVE RESULTS 



o 



C. H. CURTIS 

UK, experience with brooders and brooder chicks con- 
vinces us there is a good deal to be taken into con- 
sideration. Under right management it is a simple 
thing to run a good brooder and raise healthy chicks. We will 
give some of our methods of operating a good brooder. In the 
first place when we begin to think about incubating eggs we begin 
to plan how to take care of and provide for the baby chicks. 
When they arrive, brooders that we are to use or the coming 
season, whether old or new ones, are given a general overhauling, 
something like this: They are thoroughly cleaned and renovat- 
ed, and then we use a good lice destroyer inside. We do this 
for several reasons. One is we commence to kill lice before the 
chicks go into the brooder; the next reason is, it makes a good 
disinfectant and helps to keep the air pure in the brooder. We 




45— COLONY OF LIGHT BRAHMAS AT THEIR NOON MEAL 



the brooders. The whitewash will also aid in lighting up the 
interior of the brooder when the lids are closed. 

At the end of the season when the brooders are to be stored 
for winter, be sure to clean them up thoroughly as advised above. 

CT put away your brooders badly soiled from a season's use; 
thoroughly clean and disinfect them. Before storing be sure 
that the brooder is in good repair and thoroughly sweet and 
clean. Store in a dry place protected from the weather. If you 
are careful to follow this plan the brooder will be easily made 
ready when needed at the beginning of another season by simply 
exposing it for a while to fresh air and sunlight. In brooding 
chicks as in all other line-: of poultry work, it is the careful atten- 
tion to detail-. — "the little things that count" that brings success. 



use the liquid lice killer and allow it to thoroughly dry, after 
which we cover the bottom of the brooder with dry sand (such 
as is used for building plaster) to the depth of an inch or an inch 
and a half. This we find to be a very good litter for the hover 
or mother part of the brooder, as it makes a dry floor for the 
youngsters to travel over, and also helps to keep the floor at 
a good temperature for warmth. The droppings become dry 
and hard upon this litter, and when you come to clean the brood- 
er it is very easily and quickly accomplsihed. We have a small 
hand rake for this purpose, and every morning the droppings 
are raked up and removed from the brooder, for we believe that 
you cannot keep a brooder too clean nor the air in the brooder 
too pure for the good of the youngsters. 



\ 



ARTIFICIAL BROODING 



About three or four days before our hatch is ready to come 
off we start a slow fire in the brooder, to dry it and heat it up 
throughout. Then just before placing in the chicks we run the 
temperature of the brooder up to 90 degrees and keep this 
temperature under the hover from eight to ten days. The tem- 
perature we do not guess at, for we think that is poor manage- 




46— BROOD COOP AND PEN 
A lath pen of this type is almost a necessity where mature fowls have access to the yard 
where the chicks are fed. Special food is given in the pen and the fowls cannot reach it. 

ment, for these reasons. If the chicks become chilled they get 
a very serious set-back; it gives them bowel trouble, causes 
them to crowd and smother one another, and gives the operator 
all kinds of trouble to get them straightened out again. Too 
much heat is about as bad as too little. It makes the young- 
sters weak, gives them leg trouble, colds, and causes them to lose 
their appetite, a most essential thing for little chicks to have 
if they are expected to thrive. To insure an even temperature 
place a thermometer in the hover so that the bulb of the mer- 
cury is raised about two inches from the floor. Then keep the 
hover at 90 degrees for eight or ten days, and after that the 
temperature can be dropped to 85 degrees for five or six days 
and then to 80 degrees. This we find to be a good temperature 
until the chicks are six or seven weeks old. 

We like the hot air brooders for several reasons, and we 
also prefer the center heat. We find that if there is any crowd- 
ing on the chicks' part that they crowd to the center and keep 
making room for one another, hence they do not smother each 
other by crowding into the corners. In a hundred chicks size 
brooder we never place more than seventy-five newly hatched 
chicks, and generally after the first ten days we are obliged to 
remove about half of the youngsters to another brooder. This 
is not only beneficial to the youngsters, but is also better for the 
operator, for this reason; he can feed the more robust chicks 
heavier than he would the weaker ones and the stronger chicks 
do not domineer over the weaker ones. One thing we are care- 
ful to avoid is not to feed or water the chicks in the hover part 
of the brooder. We place their food and water in the outside 
part of the brooder and compel the youngsters to go there to 
supply their wants. We take special notice at every feeding 
that every chick comes out to get something to eat. If they do 



not we put them out and watch them very closely to see if they 
partake of the rations set before them. If they have not been 
over fed previously they will take hold with the others. If 
they do not, and stand around dumpish, we remove them to 
other quarters. We also feed them in such a manner that they 
cannot trot through their food or water, getting themselves 
wet and all gummed up and then go back under the hover and 
get that to smelling foul, thus causing sickness in the youngsters, 
for which the brooder is often blamed. 

It is good policy in the spring, just as soon as the weather 
will permit, to get the brooders and chicks out doors, so that 
they can get all the fresh air possible. 

Another thing I should like to mention is this: In the late 
spring or early in the summer it is not a good idea to set the 
brooder and chicks out of doors so that the rays of the sun can 
strike on the hover part unless the cover is raised to allow the 
warm air to circulate in the hover freely. Then just before the 
sun's rays leave the brooder, close it up so as to keep it from 
getting damp with the night dews. Do not allow the fumes of 
the lamp or heater to pass directly into the hover, as this is very 
injurious to the youngsters. It gives them catarrh, sore eyes, 
and in many cases kills them outright. If you have a brooder 
with too much bottom or top heat, look out for all kinds of 
trouble with the youngsters. Last, but not least, when you have 
finished the season's work with brooders and have no further 
use for them, don't let them stand around in the weather, but 
remove to dry quarters, empty the lamps, brush out the brooders 
and set them away until you want them again in the spring. 
With this kind of care your brooders will pay for themselves 
many times over and last for years, as there is comparatively 




47— THREE USEFUL DEVICES 
On the left is a three compartment grit and shell box with glass front, 
an adjustable feed hopper. In the center is a drinking fountain. 



On the right 



little wear and tear on them, and they are just as good to use 
in after years as they are when you first get them. If you are 
using incubators, do not try to raise chicks without the help of 
a good brooder. It is just as essential to have as a good in- 
cubator, because it is to your profit to raise as many of the 
chicks hatched as is possible. 



59 



READY-MIXED CHICK FEEDS 

ADVANTAGES OF ITS USE— COMPOSITION— THE MOST ECONOMICAL FEED FOR 
YOUNG CHICKS— COMPARED IN FEEDING QUALITY WITH OTHER FEEDS— SHOULD 
BE FREE FROM DUST AND EVERY GRAIN ABSOLUTELY SOUND, SWEET AND DRY 



M. L. CHAPMAN 




I HE proper feeding of poultry is without doubt the 
most essential factor in the raising of any kind of 
poultry for profit As this is the largest item of 
expense in the running of a poultry business, it 

(is a subject which every poultryman should study 
with a considerable amount of original common 
sense, as there are no hard and fast rules that can 
be laid down as applicable to every case, — cli- 
mate, breed, price of grain and general environment all having 
to be considered in determining the proper rations. 

Considerable advancement in the feeding of poultry has 
been made in the past few years, especially in the feeding of 
little chicks. The old way of feeding chicks was to mix up meal 
and water, or meal and sour milk, making a sort of dough for them. 
On nearly all the large poultry farms, chicks are now started 
entirely on some modern, ready-mixed, dry-grain chick feed. 
In my travels about, however, I find that many farmers 
who raise quite a lot of poultry, still follow the old system from 
a false idea of economy, reasoning that if a bag of meal costs 
SI. 25 and a bag of that "new-fangled" chick feed $2.50, that 
they are a winner by a dollar and a quarter. 

"ONE HUNDRED POUNDS OF CHICK FEED WILL GO TWICE AS FAR AS 
ONE HUNDRED POUNDS OF MEAL" 

But let us figure a moment and see how it actually works 
out. In the first place it is almost an impossibility to feed 
a dough of this sort without wasting a great portion of it, as the 
hen will scratch it around amongst the dirt and the little fellows 
will patter it down in the mud. Any that is left is soon soured 
by the sun, and is then great stuff to place the chicks among 
the dear departed. Now consider the $2.50 a hundred feed: 
In the first place it is all ready and can be fed much more quickly. 
If any should be left on the ground, it is all right for the chicks 
to pick up an hour or so later, when some of the youngsters be- 
come hungry again. It is composed of several different kinds 
of grain, and will nourish the chicks properly. I have tried 
both ways, and can state positively that a hundred pounds of 
good chick feed will go twice as far as a hundred pounds of meal, 
it can be fed more conveniently, will start the chicks much 
faster, and the mortality is much less with it. 

Let us investigate what a first-class chick feed should be 
composed of to qualify for the best standard. There are a 
large number of chick feeds on the market varying in price 
from $2 to $7 per hundred weight. Some of the firms who 
manufacture chick feed are in the business because they were 
selling poultry supplies or in some way were in touch with the 
poultry trade when the demand for balanced rations began to 
grow. The men in charge know very little about poultry or the 
grain business, arid while their product is undoubtedly better 
than the old ground grain method, it is not as perfect as is 
possible for a well-equipped milling plant to produce. Of 
course, such a plant must have a competent man in charge of 
the poultry feed department, one with a practical knowledge 
of poultry and scientific knowledge of feeding. There are 
many so-called balanced rations, chick feeds, egg forcers, etc. 
the market that, are made by parties with little or no knowl- 
edge of poultry, that it behooves us to be careful that we do 
not spend our good money for a mess of pottage. 



Every one who buys grain should make a study of the State 
Experiment Station Report on Foods. Much information about 
different foods can be obtained, although it must be remem- 
bered that the hen does not always analyze food the same as 
the chemist. 

"EVERY GRAIN IN A BAG OF CHICK FEED SHOULD BE ABSOLUTELY 
SOUND, SWEET AND DRY" 

Some manufacturers claim that their chick feed contains 
seventeen or eighteen different ingredients. While some variety 
is necessary in a perfect chick food, it is not necessary to have 
as many ingredients as this. It is essential, however, that 
every seed and every particle of grain in a bag of chick feed 
should be absolutely sound, sweet and dry; in fact, should look 
and smell tempting enough* to eat. A chick feed that contains 
in proper portions, corn, wheat, oats, rice and millet, will pre- 
sent sufficient variety to properly nourish any chick. We have 
seen samples of chick food that contained a large number of 
different seeds, some of them of doubtful value, the idea seem- 
ing to be that the greater number of different seeds the food 
contained, the better it would sell. Now in order to combine 
so many different seeds in a feed to sell it at anything like the 
usual price, it is necessary to use a poorer quality of seed through- 
out, and to introduce many seeds which may or may not be of 
value to poultry, some of which may be injurious. We doubt 
if anybody can properly combine a chick food containing twenty 
different ingredients, and keep them all up to par. 

The corn that is used in a chick feed should be two years 
old, as nearly all corn goes through a sort of fermentation the 
first spring, and does not reach its hardest and most perfect 
condition the first year. We have seen bags of chick feed that 
contained quite a large proportion of fine-cracked new corn 
that arrived from the manufacturer so hot that you could not 
hold your hand in the bag, and the feed had to be spread out 
on the floor and turned over for several days before being re- 
sacked and offered for sale by the dealer. Such chick food will 
quickly place your chicks in the absent column. 

CHICK FEED SHOULD BE FREE FROM DUST AND WASTE 

Some chick feeds are made from a good quality of grain, 
but are not blown sufficiently clean after cracking, and you will 
find by running them through a fanning mill, that you can take 
out about twenty pounds of fine meal to the hundred. Of 
course, this twenty pounds is an absolute loss, as when the 
chick feed is scattered on the ground or in litter, the chicks 
cannot get the dust. Try to buy a chick feed that is practi- 
cally free from dust and waste. 

We have examined chick feeds offered for sale that actual- 
ly contained 15 per cent of grit, 10 per cent of fine cracked 
oyster shells and about 10 per cent of charcoal, although it 
might not be safe for a manufacturer to put out a chick feed 
without some grit in it, as many people cannot be depended 
upon to furnish their chicks with any kind of grinding material; 
however, such a large percentage of grit, shells and charcoal as 
above is nothing short of a roast on the buyer, as these ingredi- 
ents can be purchased separately for about half a cent per pound. 

Charcoal is a good food for small chicks and they should 
have it, but when it is combined with chick feed and shipped 



60 



ARTIFICIAL BROODING 



around the country, the most of it is powdered into dust. We 
believe the most economical way to feed it is. to buy the char- 
coaland prepare it at home. 

THREE CENTS FEEDS A CHICK BEYOND THE DANGER POINT 

Some chick feeds are composed very largely of shrunken 
grains of wheat, and small weed seeds that are blown out from 
grain at the large elevators. Such feeds are of far less value 
than a feed that is composed entirely of sound, selected grains 
broken to the proper size, and blown free from dust, so that 
practically the whole bag can be fed without loss. Ordinarily 
such a feed can be bought at retail for about $2 . 50 per hundred 
weight, and it is the best and most economical feed that can 
be used. There are a number of such foods on the market 



RAISING BROODER CHICKS 

VALUABLE HINTS ABOUT CARING FOR 
CHICKS ENTRUSTED TO THE BROODERS 

MRS. W. B. CHANDLER 

I HAVE been peculiarly fortunate in raising brooder chicks, 
and though I do not claim to be "all-wise" on the subject, 
perhaps if I tell how I manage them it may help some less 
fortunate one to see wherein she fails. « ) 

A lady said to me the other day, "Oh, you always succeed 
with everything." That was not true, and I knew it, but I 
said nothing and let it pass. But one thing I do know, and that 




48— POULTRY HOUSES WITH WOODLAND RANGE 



and if you exercise a little care in buying, you will be able 
to find one that will answer all requirements, and will solve 
the feeding problem for you, as far as the young chicks 
are concerned. One hundred pounds of such feed will carry 
75 or 100 chickens pretty well past the danger point, so that 
the expense of feeding a chick until it is well started is only 
about three cents. 

In feeding chick feed to chickens that are running with 
hens carry a pail of corn and throw out a small handful to 
the hen. It is just as good for her as the more expen- 
sive chick feed. 

Do not neglect to provide green food and some form 
of animal food, if your range does not supply them in suffi- 
cient quantities. If you are able to solve the other problems 
as well as the feed, your chickens will be present or accounted 
for when the fall round up comes. 



is that I never give up to one failure. I try again and again 
until I force at least a partial success from my efforts. All of 
which means if your chickens die off the first time you try to 
raise them in a brooder, try it again, and do things differently, 
thinking over each step and searching out the cause of your 
failure. 

The day the chicks are due to hatch I light the lamp in the 
brooder so that it may be thoroughly warmed. Previous to this, 
however, I have carpeted the whole brooder with burlap tack- 
ing it in the corners and a few places at the sides, so it will stay 
in place. Over this is strewn a good covering of oats chaff 
(gathered at threshing time) in which all their feed is scattered. 
I use a commercial chick feed and the wee Biddies have to scratch 
for it in the chaff. The first' week this chaff need be changed 
but once or twice, and a thorough brushing with a whisk broom 
cleans it quickly and perfectly. As the chickens grow older, 



61 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING 



the brooder must be cleaned oftener to keep it sweet smelling. 

The first day they have do water, then it is given to them 
(a lit t lo warm) three or tour times :\ day after they have eaten 
and is taken away again in half an hour or so. Believing that 
an ounoe of prevention is indeed worth a pound of euro, I give, 
three or four times the tirst week or ten days, scalded fresh milk 
instead of water the first time in the day. By so doing 1 believe 
most oi the bowel trouble will be prevented, and possibly all 
of it. As to the heat, 1 keep it so that few of them seek the hover; 
but 1 seldom, except on very windy days, shut the lid down 
tight. I put a small nail or a thin chip under, and so avoid the 
danger of overheating, by giving a means of escape for the hot 
air. The burlap on the floor of the brooder need be renewed 
only once in three weeks, usually. But that must be governed 
by the soil that is on it. 

I like to get my chicks out on the ground by the time they 
are a week old, but sometimes, early in the season when the 
weather is bad, they have been in the brooder till three weeks 
old before ever getting onto the ground, and yet there was not 
a case of leg weakness. Perhaps the strictly grain diet which is 
furnished by the feed I use is responsible in part for this, but the 
thick covering of chaff on the floor of the brooder, in which 
their food is buried, is also a great factpr in the case. 

As to incubators, I think they are a good deal like children, 
all the better for a judicious letting alone. If one notices all 
the little naughty things a child does, one is pretty apt to be 
kept in hot water. If you notice all the little variations of 
temperature in an incubator, you will be kept in a state of anxiety 
and doubt all the time, but by letting it alone except at stated 
periods, say three times a day, you can judge much better how 
the regulator is working. The inequalities of heat will adjust 
themselves, and at certain hours you get the mean temperature. 



NOTES ON DRY FEEDING 

WHAT AND HOW TO FEED TO PRODUCE 
TWO-POUND CHICKS AT EIGHT WEEKS 

DR. H. P. NOTTAGE 

Dr. Nottage is a practical poultry keeper and has for a number 
oj years practiced, and been an exponent of, dry feeding both chicks 
and fowls. His conclusions, therefore, can be considered as the out- 
come of experience and intelligent observation. — Editor. 

I ASKED a well-known authority on poultry a while ago 
what he had found out to be the disadvantages of dry 
feeding and he responded, "I haven't found any yet!" 
If such is the experience of a man who for many years has been 
constantly visiting poultry ranches, it certainly may be a safe 
proposition for any one to consider, even though he has a large 
ranch, and may be afraid of losing money by changing methods. 
I have always contended that the safest way, at least for the 
beginner is to start with his little chicks direct from the machine, 
for there have been some who for various reasons, most of them 
avoidable, have got into trouble by changing horses in the middle 
of the stream. It seems as if some flocks of fowls have never 
had sufficient meat in their ration. Those hens may fill up on 
beef scraps to their hurt if the scraps are placed before them 
once, allowed to remain and they are at liberty to eat their fill. 
It is better in such cases to let them have access to the meat 
only every other day at first, or to see that the hopper feeds 
gradually, so that they have to work for what they get. 

Another thing for which I have contended from the first 
is that little chicks right from the machine shall be allowed 
access to scraps at their first meal and ever after have all they 



want. I have repeatedly seen warnings not to give them scraps 
until a week or two. I give mine all they want and bowel 
trouble is a thing unknown among my chicks. Here comes in 
the question of the kind of scraps one uses; and there may be 
the difficulty with some. Some grades of scraps are only fit 
for fertilizer. Every maker seems to turn out scraps different 
from another. We get them diy and fine; coarse and full of 
chunks of bone in big splinters; bright and lively looking, and 
dead and dull in appearance. I hope that as soon as poultry- 
men know and say what they want we shall get scraps uniform 
in consistency and quality. For dry feeding we need scraps 
that average one-eighth of an inch in size, bright looking, of a 
golden brown, in which the fibers of meat and small bits of bone 
appear, without the feathery and dusty appearance produced 
by an admixture of tankage. Let us stand for at least fifty 
per cent of protein. Before I knew much about scraps I fed 
a brand that was full of big splinters of bone that government 
analysis afterward proved to contain only thirty-five per cent 
protein. Tankage in scraps is detected by feathery strings of 
stuff that look as if little shreds of cotton batting had been 
rubbed in animal meal. Cottonseed Culls are sometimes used 
as an adulterant and give a similar appearance to the scrap. 

We would not like to feed cracked corn that was half meal, 
as that would be considered as wasteful; neither do we want to 
feed scraps that are half meal. Let the meal be sifted out and 
sold as animal meal and give us scraps that are granular, so 
that we can detect just what each particle really is. 

One of the questions that is most frequently asked is, 
"Can you grow chicks just as rapidly on dry food as you can 
with wet food?" With the breeds that are grown for broilers 
it is expected that you will get the most of your chicks to weigh 
three pounds to the pair, live weight at eight weeks and that 
some of them will weigh two pounds each. This is accomplished 
by feeding four or five times a day cooked food that is concen- 
trated and forcing, using the formulas that experienced broiler 
raisers have found to be best suited to this purpose and even 
then it is expected that some of the chicks will "go off their 
legs" from over-feeding. You can produce the same weight of 
chicken by filling up a food box with one-third wheat and two- 
thirds cracked corn and let them have all the scraps they will 
eat, and you will not see as many get weak in the legs from over- 
feeding. 

Speaking of the legs of your chicks, I would like to make 
an observation that has been made by visitors to my ranch. 
They have remarked the large sturdy legs that little chicks put 
on under this dry feeding as if to carry a large frame later on. 
It would be interesting to know if others have observed the same 
thing. One man who has used dry feeding off and on for twenty- 
five years wrote that during the years that he used dry feeding 
the fowls were larger, and that when he dropped back to the 
usual wet mash feeding he noticed a deterioration in size of both. 
Without making any attempt to breed for size of eggs, I know 
that my eggs have increased from about 21\ ounces to the dozen 
to about 28 ounces. 

These are points for all to observe. Experiment stations 
are already working on these problems and we may expect in 
the next few years to learn some valuable things. 

It requires a good deal of courage for one who has been 
accustomed to the old way of feeding to place a lot of food 
before chicks and let them have all they want; but thousands 
of poultrymen are now doing this with the best of results, both 
in growth, health of young chicks and breeding stock. Now 
is the time to plan for testing this method with your young 
chicks that will soon be coming on. Try a hatch or two with 
dry food and you will find that it not only saves time, but you 
will have fewer chicks that are sick, and a smaller percentage 
of mortality. 



62 



STARTING THE CHICKS 

DO NOT FEED TOO SOON— DRY FOOD ENDORSED— NOT TOO MUCH AT A TIME 
—TWO GOOD TOHNNY CAKES— FEED A VARIETY— VALUE OF PROPER HEAT AND 
GOOD SANITATION— GIVE THE CHICKS FRESH AIR-AVOID ALL OVERCROWDING 



A. F. HUNTER 




LL experienced poultryman are aware that there 
is a large amount of bungling work done with 
chicks. Some feed too soon, some feed too 
much, some overheat in the brooders, some chill 
the chicks in the brooders or brooder house, in 
fact, there are very many ways by which 
chicken work is bungled. — and bungling work 
costs heavily in chick mortality. At a recent 
gathering poultrymen were discussing chicken experiences, and 
they quite generally agreed that the right starting of the chicks 
was the keynote to better success with their work. The good 
work done by incubators is not supported by good work in 
brooding and feeding the chicks, and while some were inclined 
to thing the fault was in the brooding, others were strongly of 
the opinion that the careless or bungling work of the brooder 
•operators, especially in the feeding, was chiefly to blame for the 
heavy losses. 

EXERCISE CARE IN FEEDING 

It is certain that much bungling is done in the feeding, 
and by not a few the bungling consists in feeding too soon, al- 
though with many it consists in overfeeding, feeding unsuitable 
foods, etc., etc. Take the point of feeding too soon, and if 
one studies the literature touching upon the subject he will 
find that there is great diversity of opinion among supposed 
authorities. It is generally conceded that the chicks ought not 
to be fed during the first twenty-four hours, and many maintain 
that they will do still better if not fed until they have been out 
•of the shell at least forty-eight hours, and there are still other 
writers who stoutly maintain that still better results will be 
gotten if sixty to seventy-two hours elapse before the chicks are 
: given any food. 

We all know that the tiny chicks are well supplied with a 
nourishing food at the time of exclusion, as the balance of the 
yolk of the egg is absorbed into the chick's abdomen just before 
that period, which is nature's way of providing sustenance until 
supplies can be found, the absorbed yolk giving strength for the 
search. Common sense should teach us that they ought not to 
be fed until they have had a chance to digest and assimilate 
the absorbed egg yolk, and experienced chicken raisers are 
coming to believe that a very serious mistake is made by feed- 
ing before the chicks are forty-eight hours old. It is better 
that they get to be a little hungry before they are fed than that 
they be tempted to eat before they are really ready to digest 
food. If the chicks are "well hatched," they should be left in the 
incubator until the morning of the second day, and then removed 
to a well warmed brooder, which has chaff or finely chopped 
clover, etc., scattered over the floor, and a little dry chick-size 
grit and water given them. 

DRY FEEDING ENDORSED 

We say "feed some dry food" advisedly, because the con- 
sensus of opinion among experienced chicken raisers is coming 
to be that dry food, especially the first week or two, is the best. 
Among the advantages of feeding a dry food is that it does not 
sour if not eaten immediately, as does wet food; also the chicks 
will not overeat of it. When fed a wet (or moistened) food 
there is danger of their eating more than their tiny digestive 



organs can take care of; and another important advantage is 
that this dry food can be scattered in the litter and the chicks 
made to exercise for it from the first. That common term, made 
to exercise, does not really express the idea. It is "natural" 
for a chick to exercise, that is, to scratch and seach for seeds, 
grains, insects, etc., for its food, hence the inducing of exercise 
is simply feeding in nature's way. To secure this advantage 
and do away with the wide-spread dissatisfaction with present 
methods of feeding, many prepared chick foods have been put 
upon the market and are coming to be very generally used. 
These preparations furnish "balanced rations," that is, they 
are so blended (or compounded) of several different seeds and 
grains, rightly proportioned, that all the bodily wants are sup- 
plied; and the use of them has given most satisfactory results. 
Certain it is that the systematic feeding of these "balanced" 
foods gives complete imm unity from bowel trouble, leg weak- 




49— A THREE COMPARTMENT FOOD HOPPER 
The hopper is made from a biscuit box as shown in the illustration. 

ness, brooder sickness, etc., and users of them claim that with a 
right temperature in the brooder the mortality in little chicks 
can be reduced to a minimum, and the most happy result of 
increased profit will be the reward. 

LITTLE AND OFTEN 

Whatever kind of food is fed the good old rule, "Feed only 
a little at a time and feed often," should be rigidly adhered to; 
it is the veritable keynote to successful chicken raising. A 
most successful broiler raiser of our acquaintance says that over- 
feeding, especially of too concentrated soft foods, is the cause of 
very much of the infant mortality with chicks. Of course, if 
one does not feed the soft foods to little chicks, he does not incur 
the risk of overfeeding them, and as we said before, that is one 
of the great advantages of the dry foods consisting largely of 
seeds and grains, that the chicks will not over eat of them; an- 



63 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING 



other great advantage is that the foods are not too concentrated, 
If wo study the natural way of ohioks feeding, which is here a 
Beed, there a grain, then a bug or worm, ami that very much 
exercise in the way of running about, scratching ami searching 
aooompanies the feeding, we can readily understand that 
exercise or working for the food is a substantial aid to the pro- 
of digestion; hence we cannot too strongly urge that it is 
most reasonable, and will be most certainly profitable, for us to 
study and elosely follow the natural way. 

TWO GOOD JOHNNY CAKES 

Probably the next method is feeding for the first week or 
ten days a well baked johnnyeake; and the term well-baked 
ought to be made particularly emphatic, because it means a 
great deal. A johnnyeake should be baked several hours, four 
to six hours, in a slow oven. Then it is an easily crumbled cake 
and should have no stickiness or doughiness about it. Two 
formulas which have been made by Dr. P. T. Woods, and have 
given good results in the hands of practical chicken men, are 
the following: 

JOHNNY CAKE NO. 1 

Two quarts of bran (or shorts.) 
Two quarts of coarse corn meal. 
One quart of wheat middlings. 
One handful of good clean beef scraps. 
One handful of good chicken grit. 

Rub these together dry with from two to four infertile eggs, 
and mix all together with barely enough skim milk to just moist- 




50— EASILY CONSTRUCTED FATTENING CRATE 

en it. Rub the whole into a moist, crumbly mass with the hands, 
then put in a well greased pan (a roasting pan about three inches 
deep is the best) and press down hard to stick cake together. 

JOHNNY CAKE NO. 2 

Two and a half quarts of bran (or shorts.) 

Two and a half quarts of corn meal. 

Two quarts of ground oats, sifted. 

One quart of clover meal. 

One handful of coarse bone meal. 

One handful of beef scraps. 

Mix all together while dry and then rub in half a dozen 
infertile eggs. Wet up with milk or water (or both) and add one 
heaping teaspoonful of baking soda and one teacupful of pure 
cider vinegar, mix the whole thoroughly into a stiff dough and 
bake three to six hours in a slow oven. It is claimed for this 
johnnyeake No. 2 that, where chicks are not very strong and 
have a tendency to bowel trouble, it will prevent their pasting 
up behind. 



A popular food for the first week with some chicken raisers 
is either cracker crumbs or dried bread criunbs thoroughly mix- 
ed with finely chopped, hard-boiled eggs, and a very little or no 
moisture added; but hard-boiled eggs are a very concentrated food 
and there should be at least four or five times as much cracker 
crumbs or bread crumbs as there is of egg. Pinhead oatmeal or 
rolled oats makes a superior chick food, and where pinhead oat- 
meal can be bought by the barrel (or bulk) at a cost not exceed- 
ing two and a half or three cents per pound, it is an excellent 
food. The little chicks should be fed four or five times a day, 
say every two or two and a half hours, for the first week or ten 
days; and all dry-grain mixtures should be thrown in the scratch- 
ing litter to promote exercise; and if the soft feeding method is 
employed, some dry grains should be scattered in the litter to 
give variety and induce exercise. If chicks are fed a soft food 
all the food not eaten within a few minutes should be removed, 
so that it will not become sour from the heat. 

FEED A VARIETY 

After the first few feedings chickens need a variety of foods 
The dry-grain chick foods supply this. Where other method, 
are employed they should have, in addition to their johnnyeake 
and mash foods, feedings of cut or rolled oats, cut wheat and 
granulated corn (this is fine cracked corn with the coarse cracked 
and fine meal sifted out, and is known in some localities as 
"corn grits".) Where a dry grain chick food is used a little 
pure beef scrap, which has been steamed or barely moistened 
by scalding water, should be fed each day after the chicks are 
a week old. The chicks should, after they are 
four or five days old, have one or two feedings 
a day of some bright, fresh, green food, like 
lettuce, cabbage or the fresh, green shoots of 
sprouted grain. Where it is possible to give 
the little chicks a clean grass-run, it will be 
beneficial. 

After the first week, four times a day is 
often enough to feed. It is a mistake to feed 
too much or too often. The chicks need a 
little time between meals to work and get up 
an appetite. They must be kept hungry, but 
not too hungry, and with most people there is 
more danger of overfeeding than of starving 
them. If the chickens appear dumpish and 
do not take hold of their food eagerly, try 
lighter feedings and add more grit to their 
food. Feeding grit in such cases will often 
work wonders. 

Until the chicks are ten days or two weeks 
old they will be fed practically the same, 
whether they are intended for market or for 
use as stock birds. If they are started right the battle is half 
won. After the second week the manner of feeding and caring 
for them depends on whether they are intended for broilers or 
roasters, or whether they are to become layers or breeders. 
If all are treated alike and the careless grower makes his 
selection of laying and breeding stock out of his "pushed- 
for-market" flock it will eventually prove a detriment to his 
poultry, and will in a short time find himself confronted with 
some of the many poultry troubles which result from failure to 
use good judgment. 

KEEP THE RIGHT HEAT 

Too much or too little heat in the brooder is the cause of 
not a little chick mortality; this also is very likely to manifest 
itself in "bowel trouble." If the brooders are overheated the 
little chicks get to perspiring, the pores of the skin are opened, 
and an exposure to a chilling atmosphere causes congestion and 
cold and a diarrhoea quickly develops. Sometimes too many 
cooks spoil the broth, and more than one brooder full of chicks 



64 



ARTIFICIAL BROODING 



has "passed over to the majority" through the interference of 
an over-zealous friend or co-worker. 

A most forceful example of this over-zealous help was the 
case of an outdoor brooder full of chicks on a poultry farm in 
Massachusetts. It was coming on cooler at night and the zeal- 
ous wife of the poultryman, while crossing the yard, passed the 
brooder and thought to herself: "It is going to be a cold night 
and these chicks need a little extra heat," so she gave a slight 
upturn to the lamp and flattered herself she had been good to 
the chicks. A little later the man having the brooders in charge 
was passing that brooder and he thought, "It is going to be a 
cold night and these chicks need a little more heat," and he, too, 
gave a little upturn to the lamp wick. Neither mentioned to 
the other the kindly thought for the good of the chicks, and 
when the man having the brooders in charge stepped out of the 
house the next morning there was a pretty little heap of ashes 
where the brooder full of chicks had stood the night before, 
and in the ashes were the metal parts of the brooder and the 
calcined bones of the baby chicks. 

This is an extreme case, of course, but it well illustrates 
the danger of too many fussing with the brooder lamps. One 
person should be the responsible custodian of the brooders, and 
should be competent to judge whether more or less heat is desir- 
able, and as he is depending upon results he will naturally take 
pains to keep the heat as near right as possible. All well equip- 
ped brooders of the present day have thermometers suspended 
within the hovers, so that it is easy to determine the temperature 
conditions under the hovers and decide whether more or less heat 
is wanted. A most successful chicken raiser of our acquain- 
tance makes it a point to have the heat a little bit strong, and 
give a little extra ventilation to balance it; he believes that the 
better quality of air resulting amply compensates for the 
very slight increased cost of oil consumed. 

POOR SANITATION. 

There is no doubt whatever that indifference as to cleanli- 
ness is a prominent factor in chicken troubles. We all know 
that freedom from filth and vermin is positively required, and 
the great difficulty is we do not live up to our knowledge. Other 
work is pressing and crowds upon the time which 
should be given to proper care for cleanliness and the 
result is unfortunate. We do not realize how quickly 
chicks double and quadruple in size, and that with 
the increase in size there is a corresponding increase 
in the droppings and a corresponding increase in the 
need for cleanliness. Speaking upon this point a 
bulletin of the Rhode Island Experiment Station says : 

"Much more important are the fatalities grouped under 
imperfect sanitation. The veriest tyro at poultry raising knows 
that freedom from filth and vermin is a primary requisite and 
no reference to disease thus arising is here necessary. But 
particular attention should be directed to the fact that a brooder 
may be scrupulously clean and absolutely louseless, yet be the 
hiding place of disease germs far more to be feared on account 
of the insidious nature of their attack and the difficulty of detect- 
ing and combatting their inroads. Such a germ is that which 
causes tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is very prevalent among 
fowls. According to observations 15.1 per cent, of the chicks 
which died were considered to be more or less affected. * * 

"Sunlight is the best and cheapest germicide for the tuber- 
cle bacillus. We found that the simple expedient of removing 
the hovers and setting them out of doors in the full sun all 
day reduced the evidence of tuberculosis in the post-mortem ex- 
amination from nearly fifty per cent to only three per cent. 

GIVE THE CHICKS PLENTY OF AIR 

Lack of fresh air is another fruitful cause of chick mortality. 
Through false economy or mistaken kindness the brooders are 



kept tight shut to prevent loss of heat, or to keep the chicks 
close to the heat supply, and the result is they do not get suf- 
ficient good, fresh air to breathe. A reasonably healthy chick 
can stand a lot of trouble if it is well supplied with ozone, and 
ozone is absolutely essential to the making of good blood, — to 
making good growth. We spoke above of the successful chick- 
en raiser who makes it a practice to have the heat of his brooders 
a bit higher than the age of the chick makes necessary in order 
that he may raise the lid of the brooder an eighth or quarter 
of an inch, or open the ventilator slides a little more, or in other 
ways supply currents of fresh, outside air. Contrast his method 
with that of chicken raisers who in mistaken kindness cover 
the brooder with burlap sacks or a horse blanket at night to 
"keep the heat in." Such do not realize that in keeping the 
heat in they are also keeping the air in, to be breathed over and 
over again. And it is no wonder that the chicks come out of 
such a brooder in the morning weak and trembly. Some brood- 
ers are so constructed that the ventilators cannot be absolutely 
tight-shut. Indeed, in one popular make of brooder we advised 
the manufacturer to provide holes for ventilation close up to 
the top under the hover, and make a slide with corresponding 



O- 



M 



^!Miafflft! 





51— THE FATTENING CRATES 



The frame of the crate is six feet long, sixteen inches wide and twenty inches high. It 
is built from seven-eighths by two-inch dressed lumber, and is divided by two tight wooden 
partitions into three compartments. Each compartment holds four chickens. Ground oats, 
finely ground, or with the coarser hulls sifted out, form the basis of all food mixtures. 

holes through it, with a knob and wire connection to the slide 
so that it could be operated from outside, and a catch so set 
that when the slide was pulled a certain -distance it was check- 
ed, and there were one-eighth inch apertures through all 
of the holes on each side. 

This device positively prevented the ventilator being fully 
closed. The operator who did not get on to the device would 
think he had wholly closed the ventilators, but there were still 
some air inlets and outlets remaining. Brooders should be well 
out daily and opened up to the sun every day; the hovers being 
turned up and exposed to the sun and air also. There are 
stormy days, of course, when such sunning and airing is impos- 
sible; it is all the more imperative that the sunning and airing 
be done when possible, on warm, sunny days. Note again the 
quotation above from the bulletin of the Rhode Island Experi- 
ment Stations which says: "Sunlight is the best and cheapest 
germicide for the tubercle bacillus." It is not only the cheapest 



65 



XRllliriAl. INCUBATING AND BROODING 



and the best germicide for that germ, but for other disease 
md it is a germicide which we should use asa preven- 
. it we use sunlighl and fresh air freely we shall have very 
little trouble with disease germs. 

OVERCROW DING 

Just a word about overcrowding the chicks in the brooders; 
overcrowding is a prolific cause of disease and death in brooder 
chicks. We do not mean when they are babies; at that time 
two or three times as many chicks can be brooded together in 
one brooder as can be safely let run together three or four weeks 
later. As we said before, chicks double in size very quickly, 
and the brooder space which was large enough for the family of 
babies has become crowded quarters for practically the same 
number of chicks grown twice the size. What then shall we 
say when by the time the chicks are four or five weeks old they 
are four times as large as when first put in the brooder? Under 
these conditions the chicks are crowded together and the weaker 
Ones get pushed down and are trampled or suffocated; many 
that do not actually die under these conditions have health 
impaired and are weaker for life. We know a poultryman who 
bought half a dozen brooders of a well-advertised make, and 
they brooded the chicks admirably for two or three weeks; then 
he began to find two or three and sometimes as many as five 
or six dead in a brooder in the morning; but not until he had 
actually lost by such overcrowding fully twenty-five per cent 
of the chicks entrusted to these brooders did he come to realize 
that he had twice too many chicks in them. Thus does nature 
revenge herself upon us. She has a way of "getting even" that 
furnishes sharp lessons sometimes, and we are wise if we give 
heed to her admonitions. 



START WITH HOPPER FEEDING 

UNDER PROPER CONDITIONS CHICKS MAY 
BE HOPPER FED FROM THE START— GRIT, 
CHARCOAL AND FRESH WATER NECESSARY 

H. A. NOURSE 

HOPPER feeding does not often begin with the first food 
fed to little chicks, but under favorable conditions it 
successful from the start. Once in the last week of 
May, I took from a large incubator sixty-two chicks that were 
left after the stronger ones had been taken out. One had a 
crippled leg and two others were apparently of little account. 
They were in the incubator forty-eight hours after the hatch 
was finished and were placed in a brooder located in a house 
with a dirt, floor. The floor of the brooder was six inches above 
that of the house and dirt was banked in to form an incline 
between them. Directly in front and five feet away was a full 
window which was never closed. 

The chicks were placed in the brooder just before dark and 
a board set on edge near the hover to keep them from getting 
away from the warmth during the night. This was moved 
back a little next morning to allow the chicks to run about in 
front, of the hover. About noon the first day this board was 
removed and a small hopper containing dry chick food was 
set about three feet from the brooder. A fountain of water 
was placed near it and a handful of fine grit was scattered about 
the pen. No attempt was made to drive the chicks to the 



food, but when they began to crowd together outside I hey were 
driven back to the brooder to get warm. Before the end of the 
first day they were eating from the hopper and it- was after- 
wards refilled as often as was necessary. The brooder was 
kept clean, a fairly even temperature was maintained and plenty 
of finely granulated charcoal, grit and fresh water were always 
within reach of the chicks. After three days the chicks were 
given a small yard in front of the house. 

At the end of three weeks, when we were obliged to aban- 
don the experiment, sixty of those chicks were alive and had 
made rapid and vigorous growth. 

HOPPER FEEDING HENS AND BROODS 

At about the same time that the experiment explained 
above was tried hoppers containing two parts chick food and 
one part whole corn, well mixed, were placed in the coops of 
ten broody hens that had finished hatching the day before. Each 
of these hens had twelve chicks. These hoppers were never 
empty, fine grit, charcoal and fresh water were supplied and 
the coops frequently cleaned. Just at sundown on pleasant 
days the hens were let out to exercise. 

The chicks made good growth and very few were lost. 
After a few days the little fellows began to eat the whole corn, 




52— CONDITIONS FOR GOOD HEALTH 

which was intended for the hens, and were often seen with their 
crops bulging with it. They seemed to digest the large kernels 
readily, for they lived and thrived. 

At the end of two weeks wheat and cracked corn in equal 
parts were gradually substituted for the chick food in the hop- 
pers and were continued in use until the chicks were weaned. 
This reduced the labor of caring for these broods to the mini- 
mum and the results were all in favor of the method. 

Although the results of these experiments were very grati- 
fying, I do not feel justified in giving the methods unqualified 
recommendation. Both were tried during warm and fairly 
dry weather when the chicks could spend most of their time in 
the open air on the green grass. Under equally favorable con- 
ditions as good results could always be obtained. But whether 
the same methods could be used successfully in cold weather, 
when the chicks are confined to pens in a brooding house, and 
have no exercise except that obtained by scratching in the 
litter, can best be ascertained by experiment. If hoppers can 
be used successfully under such conditions, it would save hund- 
reds of dollars to operators of largo brooding houses. 



66 



SUCCESSFUL CHICK GROWING 

KEEP THE CHICKS GROWING— AN OUT-DOOR BROODER IN WINTER— HARDEN 
THE CHICKS GRADUALLY— SUNSHINE AND FRESH AIR— DRY FEEDING A FACTOR- 
HINTS FOR WEANING TIME— KEEP QUARTERS CLEAN— TABLE OF WEIGHTS, ETC. 



P. T. WOODS, M. D. 



ORDINARILY weaning time is a critical period in 
the life of small chicks, particularly those which 
are grown by artificial means. It is at this time 
and in the failure to properly lead up to it, that 
many beginners make fatal mistakes in the care 
and management of brooder chicks. 

When brooder chicks are from six to eight 
weeks old, depending on the season, the weather 
and the development of the chickens, they should be ready to 
leave the brooder for colony coops, except in the case of mid- 
winter chickens, which of necessity must be kept in buildings 
warmed by artificial heat. Unless chickens are properly handled 
at weaning time there is liable to be a cessation of growth 
which means loss of time and many mean that the chick will 
fail to develop properly. Stunted, imperfect chicks and even 
increased mortality may result from errors at this time. If 
intended for breeders or profitable market stock, chicks must be 
kept growing all the time from the start; there must be no set- 
backs like "Standing still," with no apparent gain or temporary 
stops in growth. With a healthy 
normal chick you should be 
able to almost "see it grow," 
so continuous and rapid is the 
development. 

A WEIGHT STANDARD TO GROW TO 

In the following table are 
given the weights which it is 
possible to attain in growing 
chicks of the American class. 
These weights were actually 
attained with a flock of early 
hatched White Wyandotte chick- 
ens. While somewhat unusual 
and extraordinary, this sched- 
ule of growth represents actual 
development, and what has 
been done may be again ac- 
complished. It is not to be 
expected that every flock of 
chicks can be kept up to this 
standard, but it is an end to 
work for, not an ideal, but an 
accomplished fact that it is 
perfectly possible for others to 
attain if they will strive hard 
for it. 



These weights represent the actual weights of several chicks 
selected as average representatives of the flock. A few of the 
birds ran a trifle under weight and several ran a little over 
weight, so that the above table may be accepted as a fair esti- 
mate of the entire flock. 

Aside from the normal standing still which occurs in the 
first four days, these chicks grew continuously from the start; 
there were no set-backs. It has frequently been stated that 
"chicks are heirs to nothing but health and enjoyment of life, 
while the ills come from mismanagement." There is a deal of 
truth in this for it is the natural tendency of a healthy chick to 
grow and thrive. 

CHICKS GROWING OUTDOORS IN WINTER 

The writer has a flock of White Wyandotte chicks which 
are being grown in an outdoor brooder, which has been running 
out of door without shelter or protection from the weather 
since the middle of February. The weather has been stormy 
and very cold. Extreme changes have been frequent, the out- 




53— AN OUT-DOOR BROODER IN OPERATION 



TABLE OF ACTUAL WEIGHTS 

The following weights were attained by a flock of seventeen 
White Wyandotte chicks in ten weeks: 

Weight of chick when newly hatched 2 ounces 

Weight of chick when four days old —2 ounces 

Weight of chick when ten days old 4 ounces 

Weight of chick when three weeks old... 8 ounces 

Weight of chick when four weeks old 12 ounces 

Weight of chick when eight weeks old.. 2 pounds 

Weight of chick when ten weeks old 3 pounds 



door temperature ranging from 50 degrees above zero at noon 
on some days to zero on several nights, with only a few nights 
when it was warmer than 12 or 14 degrees above zero. On 
several occasions the wind has blown a gale of 60 miles or more 
an hour. Quantities of snow on the ground and only a little 
bare place in front of the brooder cleaned by shoveling. Yet 
these chicks have done remarkably well, they are covered 
with heavy down and are growing rapidly. The hover space is 
kept quite warm, several degrees higher than the brooder direc- 
tions call for, in order to keep the apartment outside the hover 



67 



ARTIFICIAL INCr BATING AND BROODING 



sufficiently warm for oomfort. but thoy got an abundance of 
pure fresh air to breathe. Every day when the sun shorn-. 

after they were a week old, these chicks have run out on the 
snow, ioe and frozen bare ground in front of their brooder and 
in this way are becoming hardened: properly seasoned to be in 
fit condition for weaning time when it arrives. Every day 
after they were three days old, no matter what the weather 
was. the hover was removed for a few minutes to air it three 
or four times between daylight and dark. Dry grain chick food, 
the best cut clover, grit, charcoal and pure fresh water have 
been kept always before these chicks from the time they were 
placed in the brooder. 

While running them in a small outdoor brooder out of doors 
in winter was begun chiefly to see what could be done, the 
results have been both interesting and pleasing thus far; the 
only disagreeable feature being the discomfort attendant on 
caring for a brooder out of doors in inclement winter weather. 
The chicks are but three weeks old at the present writing, are 
doing well and will soon need a rough packing-box, scratching 
shed shelter to afford an outdoor run in stormy weather. 

This report of experience has taken us a little way out of 
the regular course of our article, but it is given to illustrate in 
a practical manner that small chicks are naturally hardy and 
are seldom as delicate as is popularly believed, unless we 
make them so. 

It is by coddling, babying and otherwise mishandling chicks 
that we make them delicate. We are afraid to give them fresh 
air, afraid to open the brooders afraid to let the chicks be nat- 
ural, forgetting that the mother hen in natural brooding has 
no such scruples and frequently rises from her brooding posi- 
tion, forcing her chicks to take exercise and fresh air whether 
they will or no. She hardens her chicks to frequent and sud- 
den changes and at weaning time declines, in no uncertain 
manner, to permit them to hover. Having gradually outgrown 
their natural hover and having become hardened to abrupt 
changes, there is seldom any difficulty with hen-raised chicks 
at weaning time. There is no good reason why there should 
be any more trouble in w : eaning brooder chicks. 

HARDEN THE CHICKS GRADUALLY 

Lead up to weaning naturally and gradually. Let the 
change be a constant and almost imperceptible one from the 
start and there will be no trouble at weaning time. Begin, 
when the chicks are a few days old, to air out the hover cham- 
ber at frequent intervals and expose the under side of the hover 
to direct sunlight. Reduce the heat under the hover very grad- 
ually, but keep it warm enough to make the chicks comfortable. 
When operating a brooder in cold weather, keep the hover 
space warm enough so the chicks can warm up quickly. If 
you do this and care for the chicks properly, you will seldom 
find them under the hover in the day time. They run in out of 
the cold to warm up a bit and then run out again to scratch 
in the litter or play with their mates. Like all young things, 
healthy chicks are playful and get a liberal amount of exercise 
in this manner. If you doubt this, watch a flock of brooder 
chicks running with a bit of wood or other non-edible substance, 
watch them jump about and flap their tiny wings, and race in 
and out, of the brooder in the sheer joy of a happy existence. 
If you keep your eyes open you will cease to be a "doubting 
Thomas" and find small chicks quite as playful as young kit- 
r frisky young creatures. 

AN OUT-DOOR RUN ESSENTIAL 

Provide an outdoor run early, it will do them good even in 
winter to have a run outside on every fair day for a little while 
when the sun shines. On days when it is stormy, keep the 
chicks indoors, but supply an abundance of fresh air by open- 
ing the hou.se windows and by keeping the brooder vents open. 



Never wholly close the ventilators of your brooders. Close, 
dead air will kill more chicks than any other one cause. Fresh 
air is a life giver and a life saver, dan't forget this. On windy 
or stonny days it may be necessary to close the vent on the 
windward side, but keep the apposite or lee side vent open. 
Whatever you do, air out the whole brooder daily, if only for 
a few minutes. Don't use a brooder which has a fixed or im- 
movable hover. Sunlight under the hover kills genus and pre- 
vents sickness. The only way to get sunlight under the hover 
is to remove the hover board or metal and expose its under side 
and the inner side of the felts to sunshine and fresh air. If this 
is done every time the chicks are fed it will benefit the chicks 
and there will be no danger of chilling them. 

IMPORTANCE OF SUNSHINE AND FRESH AIR 

As long ago as in 1889 the Rhode Island State Agricultural 
Experiment Station issued the statement in its Bulletin No. 61 
on the "Mortality of Brooder Chicks," that: "Sunlight is the 
best and cheapest gennicide for the tubercle bacillus. We found 
that the simple expedient of removing the hovers and setting 
them out of doors in the full sun all day reduced the evidence 




54— CANVASS SUN SHELTERS FOR COOPS 

of tuberculosis in the post-mortem examinations from nearly 
50 per cent, to only 3 per cent." 

If fresh air and sunlight will work this wonderful change 
in a fatal malady like tubercular disease, it certainly can be 
counted on to prevent diseases of a less malignant nature. 
When brooding in cold weather we cannot always keep the 
hovers out all day. We can remove them for a little sunning 
and airing while feeding the chicks several times a day, and 
gradually work up to keeping them out all day as the chicks 
become gradually hardened, older, stronger and better able to 
do without artificial heat. Whatever else you may neglect, do 
not fail to supply Nature's best tonic and disease preventives, 
fresh air and sunlight (when it is available), in all parts of the 
brooder. 

DRY FEEDING A FACTOR IN SUCCESS 

I firmly believe that dry feeding is the most satisfactory 
and most successful method of feeding brooder chicks. Dry 
grain chick food of good quality, should be kept always before 
the birds. The brooders should be well littered with cut clover 
or chaff and some fine sand. Use sand and chaff half an inch 
deep on the floor beneath the hover. Keep pure beef scrap, 
good quality, green-cured, dry cut clover or alfalfa; granulated 
charcoal; chick-size grit and pure fresh water (with the chill 



68 



ARTIFICIAL BROODING 



off in cold weather) always before the chicks. They will nor 
overeat, and fed in this manner there is no danger of theit 
going without food when they need it. In addition to this, 
chick food should also be scattered in the litter. Fresh green 
food like grain sprouts, lettuce, split beets, or apples should 
be supplied frequently. Give them a grass run as soon as pos- 
sible after they are a week or ten days old, and in any case pro- 
vide an outdoor run, giving them a chance to use it during the 
sunny part of every fair day. 

Cared for in this manner the chicks will grow sturdy and 
thrive like hardy weeds; they will be always plump and in 
good condition. 

HINTS FOR WEANING TIME 

Gradually reduce the temperature in the brooder until 75 
to_65 degrees is reached; then on mild nights accustom the 




55— CONTINUOUS OPEN FRONT BROODER HOUSE 

chicks to going without artificial heat until you are able to do 
without the lamp altogether. When the chicks are from six 
to eight weeks old they should be well feathered and well grown. 
At this time if they have been hardened properly, and gradu- 
ally used to doing without artificial heat, they are ready to be 
transferred to the colony coops. These should be shed roofed 
box coops of about 3 by 6 feet floor capacity; 3 feet high in 
front and 2 feet high in the rear; the roof should be removable. 
The front should be boarded up at the bottom for a little more 
than half the height; the balance of the front should be wire 
netting and provided with a framed hood on which is stretched 
waterproof muslin or close-woven burlap. This hood should be 
hinged at the top to swing outward and held in position by 
wooden ratchets. The hood when closed should cover the whole 
wire front. Provide a large door in the center of the front 
and in the bottom of this make a small opening, for a chick 
door, provided with a slide to close it. The floor of this coop 
should be wood, kept off the ground by one inch cleats. In 
such a colony coop the chicks may be safely kept from weaning 
time until well grown and ready for the larger houses. 

After the chicks have become accustomed to doing without 
artificial heat, place one of these portable colony houses in a 



sheltered position, preferably in an orchard beneath a good 
sized tree, and move the chicks to it in the morning of a pleas- 
ant day. Place a small wire enclosed run about 6 by 10 feet in 
front of the house and keep the chicks confined for a few days 
until they become used to their home. Bed the floor of the 
house with a little sand and an inch or more of chaff, cut straw 
or similar litter. Run this house with the cloth hood closed 
at night at first; as the chicks grow and the weather be- 
comes warmer the hood may be left up on mild nights and 
finally kept open all the time. 

Do not put more than 50 chicks in one flock at weaning 
time, and when they are ten or twelve weeks old, thin the flocks 
down to 25 in a colony coop. 

KEEP QUARTERS CLEAN 

Keep the chicks' quarters clean; if they are confined to small 
runs remove to new runs often, always 
plowing up and disinfecting the old 
ground from which the chicks were 
moved. Airslaked lime (if thoroughly 
slaked) will answer for disinfection if 
a good top dressing of it is given before 
plowing under. It will be well to plant 
these old runs to rye or oats to sweeten 
the soil and afford green food for fresh 
crops of chicks. 

The colony house should be cleaned 
at least once a week and kept clean, 
renewing the sand and litter often. In 
these houses use a creolin disinfectant 
or a good lice paint at frequent intervals. 
Take the roofs off and sun and air the 
coops often. A little hot whitewash 
applied to the interior in the early morn- 
ing of a bright sunny day, and a thorough 
drying out afterward, is an excellent 
means of sweetening the coops. Don't 
let the chicks get lousy. If lice appear 
use a lice paint on the woodwork and a 
good lice powder on the birds. 

When the chicks are a little more 
than half grown put roosts into the 
coops for them. If they are healthy, 
well-fed and well-nourished you need 
not fear crooked breast bones. Pro- 
vide shade and shelter for the birds to run 
to in hot or stormy weather, but don't neglect to make the 
proper use of Nature's best remedies, sunshine and fresh air. 

SOUND, PRACTICAL METHODS 

METHODS EMPLOYED ON ONE OF THE BEST 
AND MOST SUCCESSFUL POULTRY FARMS IN 
AMERICA— MUCH TOLD IN LITTLE SPACE 

H. J. BLANCHARD 

OUR White Leghorns have been hatched and reared in 
large numbers continuously for many years by the arti- 
ficial method, and we are satisfied it is by far the best 
and most profitable way. Some few breeders still maintain that 
artificially hatched and reared chicks do not make as large, 
vigorous birds, nor as good layers, but our experience is 
quite the reverse. Buy the best incubators and brooders 
you can get, even though the first cost is more; the cheap 
machines are usually 'made to sell' and would be dear as a 
gift. Run your machines a few days before using so as to 
become familiar with them and able tokeep them well under 



69 



ARTIFICIAL 1NCL BATING AND BROODING 



control. At the end of the twenty-first day, after the hatch 
lone, open the incubator and remove the trays with the 
shells, unhatohed eggs ami dead chicks, if any; next open wide 
all ventilators and run the heat down to 98 or 100 degrees, 
leaving the chicks in without food or water until the nexl 
day. The brooders well littered with dry sand or finely 
cut straw in run and hover, should now show 95 to 100 
degrees of heat under the hover. The chicks will now 
be strong, lively and in good condition to transfer to the 
brooder hover, which should be done without chilling them. 

Peed very little the first day and give water with the chill 
off, using a good chick fountain. Be sure the chicks have some 
tine. hard, sharp grit with the first feed and always thereafter. 
What to feed is largely a matter of circumstances. AYe use 
a good commercial chick food exclusively for the first 
three or four weeks, and find it very satisfactory. After 
this we work in a little whole wheat ami cracked corn, grad- 
ually leaving out the chick food. 

BROODING AND FEEDING THE CHICKS 

We use indoor brooders early in the season while yet cold, 
hut later, when mild, use outdoor brooders. As soon as the 
chicks are strong enough and the weather is suitable, they 
should be got out doors on the grass in a little yard first, but 
when old enough, they should have free range all summer and 
until snow comes in fall. When chicks are about eight weeks 
old, we begin feeding once a day a mash of ground grain in 
which we mix a very little high-grade beef scrap, gradually in- 
creasing the quantity of meat. 

Always keep fresh water in shade where the chicks can 
help themselves to it at any time. 

We believe in the colony house plan for both chicks and 
old fowls, and free range for breeding stock so far as possible. 
We have colony T houses for chicks near our corn fields and one 
near a half-acre blackberry patch, and find the shade and protec- 
tion afforded by these crops very valuable to our growing chicks, 
and the crops and soil are also benefited by the foraging birds. 

One line of our breeding birds has houses in a small wood- 
ed valley through which flows a brook, making a typical place 
for the birds to roam at will. From stock kept in such a man- 
ner, you will not fail to get strongly fertile eggs and chickens 
of sturdy frame and robust constitution. 

The cull pullets and hens can be confined in large yards, 
planted with fruit trees of any kind or blackberry bushes, of 
which we find "Snyders" the best all-round variety. We annu- 



ally gather good crops of blackberries and tree fruits from our 
poultry yards, while the trees and bushes make the yards seem 
more like free range and the confined fowls do much better than 
in the ordinary small, bare yards. 

The best mangel wurzels are the Golden Giant Intermedi- 
ate, and we grow them as follows: Select a clean piece of 
ground and plow under a heavy dressing of stable or hen man- 
ure, harrow very thoroughly and remove all rubbish, broad- 
cast on a good dressing of commercial fertilizer and harrow in. 
Mark out rows three feet apart, sow seed in drills, about twelve 
pounds to the acre, and cover about one inch. Soon as the 
plants are large enough (about one inch high) thin out to a foot 
apart in the row, then cultivate, hoe and keep clean. The roots 
should be gathered before any hard freezing and stored in bins 
or piles in a cool cellar. 

We never store the hen manure as it is a costly job to "fix" 
the nitrogen and pulverize the manure. It is drawn directly 
from the poultry houses to the fields and spread, winter and 
summer, and gives grand results with all crops except potatoes, 
which it is liable to scab. 

BEFORE WINTER CLOSES IN 

When snow comes our chickens are taken from the colony 
houses in the field and put in warmer winter quarters. During 
fall and early winter we dispose of a large share of our hens 
for breeding, laying or exhibition, thus making room for the 
pullets. 

The cockerels are separated from the pullets about August 
and given free range on another part of the farm. They are 
kept in warm houses in winter that no combs may be frozen. 
Our best cockerels go in our own breeding pens or are sold for 
breeding or exhibition, and a great many of our pullets are sold 
and shipped all over the country. Sales of eggs for hatching 
also help swell the income. Market eggs was our first object 
and our plant was built up largely from the profits on their 
sale. When producing in large quantities we went to New 
York City and after some difficulty succeeding in placing our 
output at a good margin above regular market prices. Every 
egg must be new-laid, clean, of good size, neatly and securely 
packed to hold such trade, and you must have eggs in fall and 
winter. 

Nothing desirable comes without earnest endeavor, and the 
poultryman must expect to work hard and have for his motto, 
"Eternal vigilance is the price of success." 




70 



FEEDING, HOUSING AND REARING 



A COMPLETE COLLECTION OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS BY FOUR WELL-KNOWN 
EXPERT BREEDERS UPON THE SUBJECTS OF FEEDING, HOUSING AND REARING 
FROM HATCHING TIME TO MATURITY— COMPRISING VALUABLE INFORMATION. 




S IDENTICAL questions were asked the four 

breeders referred to, we will simply state the 

question once, then follow with the replies of 

each correspondent opposite his respective name. 

This will be advantageous to our readers, as they 

will be able to compare easily the different 

methods employed. These contributions are 

proof that while feeding methods may be similar, 

there is no cut and dried plan that can truly be deemed the best. 

Q. 1. What do you feed your laying and breeding stock? 

C. S. Green — Whole wheat, cracked corn, buckwheat, oats, 

wheat middlings, wheat bran, hominy, linseed oil meal, beef 

scrap, mangle wurzels, cut clover or alfalfa. Grit, oyster shells 

and fresh water are constantly before them. 

G. A. McFetridge — Morning feed consists of cracked corn 
scattered in straw; night feed one part cut clover, two parts 
meal, two parts middlings, one part scrap, one-half part flour, 
some crushed shell. For "greens" cabbage, potatoes, turnips. 




56— A PROFITABLE COMBINATION 

For winter feed plenty of greens; when spring comes feed rye, 
wheat and corn in the green state; cut it short. 

U. R. Fishel — Wheat, oats, corn, and two or three times a 
week a mash of one-third corn meal, balance wheat bran. Some- 
times I add clover meal, and occasionally use as a tonic cayenne 
pepper in small quantities. I also feed sparingly of green cut 
bone. 

H. A. Nourse — I feed one feed each day of whole grain — 



wheat, oats and cracked corn fed on alternate days, not mixed, 
and one feed of mash. In winter the grain is fed before light 
in the litter — straw — to induce scratching, with a light sprink- 
ling at noon on cold days, and mash at night. In summer 
reverse. 

Q. 2. Do you feed mash? 

C. S. Green— Yes. 

Q. 3. What is the composition of your mash? 

C. S. Green — One hundred pounds wheat bran, 100 pounds 
wheat middlings, 50 pounds linseed oil meal, 50 pounds hominy 
meal and 75 pounds beef scrap. 

H. A. Nourse — The mash is made of wheat bran, corn meal, 
middlings, clover meal and beef scrap. The whole grain ration 
is never varied, but the proportions in the mash are varied 
according to the needs of the fowls. 

Q. 4. What and how do you feed small chicks the first 
week? 

C. S. Green — The first two days they are fed wheat bread 
moistened with milk and fed every two hours. Grit, granulated 
charcoal and water are kept by them constantly after the first 
feed. From the third to the eighth days johnnycake is gradu- 
allyjsubstituted for the wheat bread, but is fed only three 
times a day, alternating in addition cracked corn, cracked wheat 
and millet seed either mixed or fed separately in very light lit- 
ter on the floor. The johnnycake is made of five parts corn 
meal, one part wheat middlings and one-half part beef scrap 
with a little soda mixed stiff with sour milk and steamed until 
thoroughly cooked. This is fed cool, not hot. During this time 
they are fed six times a day. 

G. A. McFetridge — I don't remove chicks until the twenty- 
second day; then I feed only once a day and give free access 
to water slightly warmed. The mash consists of equal parts of 
corn meal, middlings, and bran with flour enough to stick it to- 
gether. 

U. R. Fishel — I have found the best food for small chicks 
is cracked wheat for the first week; in fact, I have reared whole 
broods with wheat alone until nearly feathered out. Millet is 
good for chicks, but I find it will kill them if fed liberally at 
early stages. Oats, both rolled and pin-head, are good, but 
cause bowel trouble if fed to excess. 

H. A. Nourse — Millet is fed in the litter, just enough to make 
them scratch, but the principal ration is a cake made of two 
parts bran, one part sifted corn meal and a little beef scrap and 
fine grit sprinkled in, baked hard and dry and fed in crumbs on 
tin plates, which are frequently scalded. 

Q. 5. What is the ration after the first week and how fed? 

C. S. Green — During the next five weeks the chicks are fed 
johnnycake (made as described) three times a day, at 7 a. m., 
11 a. m. and 3 p. m. It is very important that they be fed the 
same time every day. When the weather will permit of free 
outdoor range whole and cracked grain suitable to the size of 
the chicks is kept before them in hoppers, but when they are 
confined the grain is scattered in litter on the floor and practi- 
cally kept by them ail the time; that is, they can find some grain 
by scratching on the floor. Wheat, cracked corn, millet seed, 
or buckwheat can be used, changing frequently. After the 
chicks are six weeks old they are fed mash twice a day (mixed 
same as for hens) and cracked or whole corn and wheat are kept 
before them in hoppers. 



71 



ARTIFICIAL lNCUKATlNG AND BROODING 



G. A. McFetridge Alter the first week 1 feed three parts 

-ran. one part of meal, one-half part beef scrap, some green 

out wheat or rye and mix with it enough Hour to make it stick. 

I". K. Fishel -After the Brst week we add to the ration pin- 
head oats, some millet and whole wheat. 1 always keep the 
chicks hungry and working. 1 have fed baked corn bread with 
good results. 

H. A. Nourse — A mash made of two parts bran and one of 
OOrn meal with a little grit and five per cent beef scrap added, 
mixed with water or milk, is fed morning, noon, and night with 
a feed of cracked wheat and corn in mid-forenoon and mid- 
afternoon as an inducement to scratch. 

Q. 6. Do you feed chicks intended for breeders and those 
intended for market differently and how? 

C. S. Green— No. 

G. A. McFet ridge — I do not except when I fatten, then 
those intended for market are fed nearly clear corn meal for 
seven to ten days, not longer. 




57— WELL FATTENED DRESSED POULTRY 

U. R. Fishel — We rear nothing for market, as we have never 
been able to rear enough for our fancy trade. 

H. A. Nourse — Just the same until time to fatten, when we 
feed to those intended for market a mash composed of three 
parts corn meal, one part bran, one part scrap and a little grit, 
in place of the mash described above. 

1 ). 7. Do you feed mash to chicks; if so, how is it made 
and how fed? 

C. S. Green — Mash is fed in the morning and at noon after 
the chicks are six weeks old. We generally feed the same as 
we feed old hens, but sometimes mix in 100 pounds corn meal 
with the ration given the hens. We never give them all the 
mash they will eat, but govern it so they will be still hungry. 

U. R. Fiflhel — I never feed mash to chicks until they are 

veil feathered aijd then if is made up of green cut bone, bone 

.], wheat bran, and clover meal. It is a good idea to feed 

h to young stock whenever they tire of grain and seem to 
stop growing. 

Q. H. What result.-, do you get? 

C. 8. Green -Pullets hatched March 1st began to lay this 
year July 21th, and cockerels are ready for market at twelve 
to fourteen weeks old. 

U. R. Fishel — Excellent. 

72 



Q. 9. What do you use for green food? 
C. S. Green — Mangel wurzels, alfalfa and ctit clover. 
U. R. Fishel — We have grass in all our yards. Also use 
some onions, clover, both cut and the meal, beets, cabbage and 
potatoes, almost anything in the vegetable line we can secure, 
cutting them with a vegetable cutter. 

H. A. Nourse — In winter with no other green stuff avail- 
able, I use chopped cabbage or add clover meal to the mash, but 
in warm weather I find lawn grass preferable. 

Q. 10. Why do you prefer your plan? Does it save in 
labor in other expense? 

C. S. Green — We consider it econamical in both labor and 
cost of food, and it serves our purpose by using the food that is 
most available here. It also produces the best results of any 
method we have tried. 

G. A. McFetridge — I find that my plan grows a large frame 
and makes a better broiler than when too fattening feed is fed 
while young. 

U. R. Fishel— I prefer 
any plan that will benefit 
the poultry, making the 
saving of labor and time a 
secondary matter. The 
welfare of my poultry is 
the first thing considered 
by me. 

H. A. Nourse — I prefer 
this method because I have 
had the greatest success with 
it. 

Q. 11. Mention any 
points which occur to you 
tending to show benefit from 
your plan of feeding. 

C. S. Green — This ques- 
tion, I suppose, relates to the 
method of feeding, which is 
as follows: The composition 
of the food is nearly the 
same in the winter as it is 
in the summer, except that 
less meat scrap is fed dur- 
ing the molting season, when 
the hens are idle, and an 
extra amount of corn is fed 
in cold weather. Whole 
wheat, cracked corn, oats and buckwheat all mixed 
together or one at a time, alternating with the others, is 
fed in a litter about six inches deep as soon as the fowls can 
see to eat. At 10 a. m. the mash is fed, care being taken not 
to feed more than about three-fourths as much as they will 
eat. At noon all the green food is given them that they will 
eat up clean, and at night they are fed the same as in the morn- 
ing. We find this a good ration for eggs in the winter. We 
are very careful not to change the ration except perhaps twice 
a year, fall and spring. As soon as the fowls can be given free 
range they are only fed twice a day. Morning feed is the same 
as in winter and the mash is fed at night all summer. An occa- 
sional feed of green cut bone when it can be procured is very 
good, even better than beef scrap. Boiled vegetables and refuse 
beef from the butchers boiled and mixed with the mash is re- 
lished very much. 

G. A. McFetridge — While fed as stated, it is a good plan 
once in a while to leave out the mash and feed a mixture of 
cracked wheat, cracked corn and either rolled or pin head oats, 
equal parts, and the first time they refuse to eat give them 
nothing for the balance of the day. 

U. R. Fishel — Good, healthy, strong, vigorous chicks matur- 
ing into breeders that give the best results in breeding yards. 



ARTIFICIAL BROODING 



H. A. Nourse — I have tried various other methods advised, 
but find the above about as easy, cheap, and as successful as any. 

Q. 12. Do you use incubators and brooders and why? 

C. S. Green — Yes; because we cannot find time to raise 
chickens with hens. 

G. A. McFetridge — I use them because they are far supe- 
rior to hens for hatching. 

U. R. Fishel — I use incubators and brooders, for the reason 
that the hens cannot be depended upon. The machines are al- 
ways ready and never leave the nest. If the brooders were as 
nearly perfect as the incubators we would not lose so many 
chicks. If every one would place in the brooders just about 
one-third the number of chicks the manufacturers claim the 
brooders will hold they would have greater success. 

H. A. Nourse — I use incubators and brooders for market 
poultry because I have found it impracticable to hatch and rear 
large numbers with hens, if not indeed impossible in the early 
season. 

Q. 13. Are artificially hatched and raised birds as good as 
those reared by the "natural method?" 

C. S. Green — Yes. The fact of their being artificially 
hatched and raised will not detract from their worth one cent. 
Crowding one hundred chicks into a brooder where forty be- 
long is the cause for the delusion that artificially hatched and 
raised chicks are inferior to those reared by the natural method. 

G. A. McFetridge — Either chicks or ducks hatched and 
reared artificially grow faster and are free from head lice. 

U. R. Fishel — Better. — I have reared larger, stronger birds 
by artificial means than the hen can rear. 

H. A. Nourse — I can discern no difference, provided the 
same conditions of range, food, and exercise are secured for 
the growing chicks. 

Q. 14. How do they differ, if at all? 

C. S. Green — We can see no difference, except that the 
brooder chicks are free from lice, and are raised with much less 
mortality than those with hens. 

H. A. Nourse — When those artificially hatched are confined 
in small yards they do not, as a rule, make as good stock birds, 
but rather better broilers. 

Q. 15. Have you any particular method of brooding and 
what are its advantages? 

C. S. Green — Yes. We use individual brooders which have 
both top and bottom heat. Each brooder is set in a colony 
house six feet square and contains about fifty chicks. The col- 
ony houses are" placed about one hundred feet apart. This 
makes it possible to give the growing birds free range without 
intense crowding. They have a chance to get all the green 
food they require, and it saves the cost and bother of fences, 
thus reducing the labor to a minimum as nearly as possible. 

G. A. McFetridge — My method of brooding is with a pipe 
system in a brooder house. I run the heat so that the return 
pipes near the stove register 100 to 110 F. with bulb in the 
returning water. This I find is the right heat. 

U. R. Fishel — We take our chicks from the machine and 
place them in the brooder, which is placed in a small yard. 
As the chicks grow they are moved to larger yards. After they 
are feathered they are taken from the brooders and placed in 
colony coops, with window sash and glass placed in front of 
same. These coops are made of pine boxes which we get of the 
dry goods stores. From these boxes they are moved to colony 
coops made of piano boxes and placed at different points on the 
farm, allowing the chickens free range. 

H. A. Nourse — I use and prefer individual indoor brooders 
for young chicks, and the overhead pipe system after two weeks. 
I believe that the chicks make a better start in the separate 
brooders because of better ventilation and slightly warmed 
floor, while the older ones seem to do better on a cool floor with 
the heat above. 



Q. 16. How do you keep your runs and yards clean and 
avoid so-called "poisoning of the ground" by fowls using the 
same runs year after year? 

C. S. Green — We give all fowls and chicks free range, occa- 
sionaly plowing the ground around the buildings. 

G. A. McFetridge — Either plow or dig the ground and sow 
to wheat or rye, or scrape off the top and add new soil or sand. 

U. R. Fishel — Each yard for the old fowls contains one acre 
in grass, while the young birds are placed at different points 
on the one hundred and twenty acres of the farm, so there is 
no poisoning of the ground. The grass absorbs all such matter, 
as do the growing crops. 

H. A. Nourse — The soil here at Fisher's Island Farm is 
very sandy and is thoroughly purified by heavy rains which 
we have in the fall and spring and which carry all foul matter 
into the earth. 

Q. 17. How do you house and yard fowls and why? 

C. S. Green — The fowls are housed in winter, in houses 
about fifteen feet wide, nine feet high in front and five feet 
high in back, with a single pitch roof, and it faces the south. 
It is divided into pens fifteen feet square, each pen containing 
about fifty laying hens. Every forty-five feet there is a solid 
partition to prevent draughts. The sides of the roof are stuffed 
with straw four inches thick, which keeps the house free from 
dampness. The front of each pen contains two window sashes, 
each sash containing twelve lights of 9 by 12 inch glass. This 
gives plenty of light without so much glass as to make the house 
exceedingly cold at night. We use cement floors because they 
are rat proof and will last indefinitely. They cost very little 
more than board floor when properly laid. 

G. A. McFetridge — I yard pullets as soon as I can detect 
the sex, but prefer to give free range if possible. 

U. R. Fishel — We use the colony plan, as it is the safest. 
No epidemic can go through your flock with the colony plan in use. 

H. A. Nourse — In summer we use the colony plan only, 
with yards for each small house, and in winter both the long 
house and colony plan, with the odds in favor of the long houses, 
they being easier to care for, and fully as successful. 

Q. 18. If you were to start over again with poultry how 
would you begin? 

C. S. Green — I would buy eggs for hatching of the breed 
I liked best. I would also get the best eggs I could find of that 
breed, and set the eggs under hens the first year. The next 
year I would buy a first-class incubator, and four first-class 
brooders and "drive on." With this equipment and good 
houses, success would be practically assured. 

G. A. McFetridge — The best and surest way to start in the 
poultry business, especially with limited capital, is to buy the 
-eggs and work your way up. If sufficient funds are in hand 
. buy stock. 

U. R. Fishel — If breeding fancy poultry I would rather have 
three strictly high-class birds than a field full of ordinary ones. 
I would buy the best I could buy and would surely buy of a 
specialty breeder. I would then each season go back to the same 
breeder and get either eggs or new breeders, thereby getting the 
same line of blood and the good results of the breeder's matings 
and experience. 

H. A. Nourse — I would begin slowly and build both plant 
and business along the lines indicated by prevailing conditions 
as the profitable ones. 

Q. 19. What is the cost of keeping the hen a year? 

C. S. Green — Ninety cents. 

G. A. McFetridge — The cost of food for one year is about $1 . 

U. R. Fishel — I can feed and care for a hen a year at an 
average of .$1 per hen, that is, in large numbers, say from five 
hundred to three thousand. 

Q. 20. What is the amount of net profit that may be 
reasonably expected per hen per year? 



73 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING 



C. S. Green It is reasonable to expecl 11 ne1 profit per Hon 

per year after paying t ho cost of food. 

G. A. McFetridge fhe net profit should be at leasl $2, the 

best 1 did was to produce SoOO worth of stock from thirty-six 
hens; of oourse, 1 sold quite a number at IS each. 

I". K. Fishel 1 never figured this out, as it is not as easily 
done on a fancy plant as on an egg or broiler plant. 

Q. 21. How many hens can he profitably kept in one 
Bock? 

C. S. Green Fifty. 

ti. A. McFetridge -It all depends on the range; four hundred 
Leghorns have done well in one flock on twenty acres. 

I". R. Fishel -From ten to one hundred. 

Q. 22. How many hens can one man care for and do well? 



C. s. Green Six hundred. 

U. R. Fishel — Fifteen hundred to two thousand. 

Q. 2\\. How many chicks should he raise each year with- 
out help? 

C. S. Green— Eight hundred. 

V. R. Fishel — Two thousand. 

Q. 24. How many breeding hens are needed to pay a 
fair living? 

C. S. Green — Three hundred. 

G. A. McFetridge — Four hundred. 

U. R. Fishel — If for fancy, a flock of White Plymouth Rocks 
numbering one hundred will make a good living; while for market 
eggs and poultry a flock of five hundred to one thousand^will 
make any man good money. 




74 



BROILERS 




PROFITABLE BROILER RAISING 

SUITABLE BREEDS FOR BROILERS— VIGOR AND SHAPE IN BREEDERS— SEASONS OF 
INCUBATION AND PRICES OF EGGS— PERIOD OF GROWTH TO MARKETABLE SIZE 
-SPECIAL FOOD AN AID TO GROWTH— CLUE TO PROFITS -CAREFUL WORK NEEDED 



A. F. HUNTER 




Mr. Hunter made an exhaustive study of this branch of poultry 
culture, collecting his facts jrom successful poultrymen in the section of 
the United States <where broiler raising is conducted on the largest 
scale. Since the raising of broilers in profitable numbers, would be 
impossible without incubators and brooders or brooder houses, a 
'work on Artificial Incubating and Brooding avould not be complete 
without a chapter devoted to the subject of broilers. — Editor. 

I HERE are several interesting features manifest in 
different lines of poultry work, and not the least 
of them is the fascination of broiler raising for 
the beginners. That the promised profits of 
turning eggs into choice marketable fowls does 
greatly fascinate the beginner is well known to 
those who have studied conditions in the poul- 
try business, and perhaps the most frequently recurring ques- 
tion coming to the poultry editor's desk relates to one point or 
another of broiler raising. Nor is this surprising when we 
consider that the changing of an egg into a chick is but a mat- 
ter of three weeks' time, and the growth of the baby chick to 
a marketable broiler is but a matter of eight to twelve weeks' 
time. Somebody says: "An egg costs two or three cents, and 
in three months we can turn it into a two-pound broiler which 
will sell for a dollar." That certainly looks an easy way to make 
money. And it would be if every egg produced a chick and 
every chick grew to broiler size and good, marketable condi- 
tion, and sold for fifty cents a pound; but, there are eggs and 
eggs, and there are broilers and broilers, and there are not a 
few difficulties in the way of realizing the profits which look so 
tempting. That there is a good profit in broiler raising there is 
ample evidence in the sections where market poultry is made a 
business, and where men have continued the raising of broilers 
and soft-roasters for ten, fifteen, twenty or more years. That 
many who embark in broiler raising gradually outgrow "the 
broiler stage" and develop into larger things is not surprising. 



We have in mind several widely known poultrymen as examples 
of broiler (and market poultry) raising having been the 
stepping stone to the great poultry business they have built 
up. 

There are great poultry farms where broiler raising is a 
considerable part, or even the chief part, of the work, and where 
incubators are kept running practically the year around. On 
others the broiler work is simply one feature of the general 
poultry work; the intention being to have a good crop of broilers 
to meet the high-priced market, and a succeeding crop of soft 
roasting chickens to meet the high-priced market for roasters, 
and a general "market poultry and eggs" business for all the 
year. There is still another class of broiler raisers, those who 
turn off their young cockerels to market just as soon as they are 
of marketable size, considering them simply a by-product of 
the general poultry work. The rapid fall in prices of broilers 
from the top market in April is partly due to the great quantity 
of surplus chicks marketed by the latter class, although some of 
it can doubtless be charged to the poor quality of many of the 
broilers thus thrown upon the market. 

PRICES THEN GO DOWN 

There is very little sale for broiler chicks in October, No- 
vember and December, at least in the general market; some sale 
there is, to private trade, and in such case very little attention 
is paid to market quotations, the prices being simply between 
the grower and his customer. In January there is a light call 
for broiler chicks, which steadily increases through February 
and March and culminates in April, then gradually decreases 
through May, June and July, and by August the lowest prices 
are again reached. These lowest prices range from 12 to 20 
cents a pound, and the highest prices range from 25 to 50 
cents a pound, the sale price depending upon the quality of 
the product and the demand in the market. The chickens must 
be "gilt-edged" to command the highest figures, and if of extra 



75 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING 



fine, "gilt-edged" quality they not only soil quickly, but fre- 
quently command a premium above highest market prices. 

These broilers are in greatest demand in April, with a 
g d demand in March and May. and a moderate demand from 
gust to Now Year's, In the best markets, which are those 
of our greatest eastern cities, the prices range from about twen- 
ty cents a pound in January up to fifty cents a pound in April, 
then gradually falls off to about twenty cents again in August. 
Not all two-pound 
chickens, however, are 
•• high-class " broilers 
a nd command t he 
highest current prices; 
to command the high- 
est prices they must 
be of "the best" qual- 
ity, must be plump, 
full-breasted, yellow- 
skinned and lino-boned 




58— TYI'E OF UTILITY IN FOWLS 



and the quicker a 
chicken can be grown 
to broiler size the bet- 
ter in quality it will 
be. The better the quality the 
higher the price and consequent- 
ly better profit to the grower. 
If a two-pound broiler costs 
nd a half cents a pound 
to raise and is of such fine quality that it sells for forty or 
fifty cents a pound, there is a profit of twenty-seven 
and a half or thirty-seven and a half centsa pound; 
if, however, it is "off" in quality and sells for ten 
cent--. less per pound, there is but seventeen and a half 
or ' ■ vea and a half cents a pound profit. This one point 

of poor quality and consequently lower price has discouraged 



(or disgusted) not a few broiler raisers, hence the importance 
of getting eggs from stock of the much desired fine-boned, 
plump-breasted, yellow-skinned class of fowls, to the end that, 
if fed right and cared for as they should be, they grow (and 
grow quickly) into broilers of the very best class. 

EGGS FOR HATCHING BROILERS 

The first problem, and one of the most important to the 
broiler raiser, is the eggs from which to hatch 
the chicks. It is November, December and 
January eggs that produce the December, Jan- 
uary and February chickens, and eggs in those 
months are scarce and high. Eggs in the 
winter months frequently sell at forty -five 
cents a dozen, wholesale; nearly four cents 
apiece. We once paid a visit to a large practi- 
cal poultry farm early in December, and found 
the owner just closing a case of fine looking 
eggs he was sending to market. We asked 
him if he was selling any eggs to market poultry 
raisers and he replied, "No, sir! It don't pay to 
bother with that trade. I'm getting forty-five 
cents a dozen wholesale for these eggs, and the 
most that market poultry raisers will pay is 

five dollars per hund- 
red; that isn't differ- 
ence enough to pay me 
for packing them to 
ship by express and 
pay for correspon- 
dence, time, etc., that 
it takes." As we had 
visited a market poul- 
try raiser only a 
couple of days before, 
and he had exclaimed 
about the difficulty of 
getting good hatching 
eggs to fill his incuba- 
tors, a comparison of 
the two differing points 
of view is interesting. 
The one man had the 
eggs in good supply, 
said he was getting a 
hundred and over a 
day, and could, no 
doubt ship five or six 
hundred eggs a week 
if the other would 
offer a price which 
would make it worth 
while taking care of 
the orders. Five dollars per hundred did 
not tempt him, possibly six dollars per hund- 
red would. 

"GOOD HATCHABLE EGGS" 

Next to getting eggs to put in the incubators the most 
important matter is the quality of the eggs, is the getting of 
good, strong-bodied eggs that will hatch out strong, vigor- 
ous chicks. Indeed, it may well be stated that the quality 
of the eggs is the most] important point; it isn't an im- 
possibility to get one for two or three thousand eggs, 
but to get eggs whichTwill turn out a reasonable pro- 
portion of sturdy, "bound-to-live" chicks is more difficult. 
This brings us to "the hens behind the eggs," as it is 
in possible that eggs be in the best shape to hatch good 
chicks unless the hens that produce them[are in high-condition. 



76 



PROFITABLE BROILER RAISING 



They must be in perfect health and be fed a food ration that 
supplies the elements of which good eggs are made. In addition 
to the food (which must include a sufficient supply of green food 
to "balance" the grain and animal foods), the fowls must be 
kept in clean quarters, must be kept free from vermin, must have 
an abundance of fresh air to breathe and must have sufficient 
exercise to keep the circulation active and promote good diges- 
tion. This looks formidable at first, but is really nothing more 
than common prudence dictates, because "the hen that lays is 
the hen that pays," and the hens must have good food and care 
if we expect them to lay. 

The term "quality of the eggs" means much more than the 
average reader will realize. It is most important that eggs for 
market be of good quality, be strong bodied and full bodied; 
if less than this they are seconds or thirds and sell for a lower 
price. Of how much greater importance that they be strong- 
bodied and full-bodied if they are to be incubated. If weak and 
watery they cannot hatch good, strong chicks. There may be 
sufficient body to the egg to nourish the embryo to (and beyond) 
the critical period of exclusion, but the infant chick will be so 
weak and feeble it cannot "make-a- live" of it; or it may be still 
poorer and the embryo die in the last week of incubation; and 
some eggs are so poor the germs die in the first few days of in- 
cubation. When eggs are very poor in quality there will be 
many of these dead germs found in the incubator at the end of 
the hatch, or thrown out at the second test; it is perhaps un- 
necessary to say that such poor quality eggs are the most un- 
profitable and most unsatisfactory for the market poultry raiser 
to buy. 

THE HENS THAT LAY THE EGGS 

The witty "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table" said that the 
education of a child should begin twenty years before the child 
is born, and, similarly, the strength and vigor of our broiler 
chicks must be planned for one or two or more years before 
the eggs are laid from which the chicks are hatched. The 
laying hens must be birds with strong constitutions and them- 
selves descended from birds that had strong constitutions. 

How to get the desired strong constitution is an important 
consideration, and it is evident that we should both breed for 
it and "select" the breeding birds for it. Prof. Graham, of the 
Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph, has given much study 
to this subject, and in an excellent article has discussed the ques- 
tion of the constitution of the breeding stock, and illustrated 
his points with photographs from birds of both the desired and 
undesirable types. We have reproduced these illustrations on 
pages . 76 and 78. Mr. Graham says: 

"I am of the opinion that one of the most important points 
to be considered is constitution. This may have no actual mar- 
ket value, but it certainly has much to do with the bird's ability 
to grow and put on flesh. What we want is a good feeder and 
an economical producer. Generally, a bird with a short, stout, 
well curved beak, a broad head, not too long, and a bright, 
clear eye, will have plenty of constitution. Furthermore, I have 
noticed that when a bird has a long, narrow beak, a thin, long 
comb and head, and eye sunken in the head, it is lacking in con- 
stitution. It also has a narrow, long body, and in many cases 
legs which are long, and upon which the fowl seldom stands 
straight. There are some exceptions to these points, yet, upon 
the average, if a bird has a good head, the chances are favor- 
able for a good body, and if a poor head, the opposite may be 
said. I have frequently noticed in Rose Comb breeds, such as 
Wyandottes, that you seldom see a good shaped one that has 
a long, narrow comb. ♦ 

"The neck of the market fowl should be moderately short 
and stout, indicating vigor. The breast is the most important 
point in a market chicken. It should be broad, moderately 
deep; and, if fairly long, will present a fine appearance and 
appear well fleshed. It is quite possible that a broad, deep 



breast will carry more meat than a moderately deep breast of 
the same width, yet there is no doubt but that the latter will 
present much the better appearance and thereby sell quicker, 
and at a higher price in the market. 

"When considering the length of breast, we must try to get 
it to come well forward (see 111. 1), and not cut off at an angle, 
as seen in 111. 2. The body, in general, should present the 
appearance of an oblong, when the head, tail and neck are re- 
moved. We frequently see birds that are very flat in front and 
cut up behind as seen in 111. 3. This class of chickens gives a 
very short breast; and if it happens to be deep, as it is in this 
bird, you will have, when dressed, about as poor a looking 
chicken as one could wish to see, there being a lack of width 
and length of breast, with excessive depth. (Notice the head 
is narrow and long, the body is narrow, the eye is bright, but 
slightly sunken, the legs are long and not straight under the 
body.) In 111. 2, note the very flat breast, the length of back, 
the long neck and head, the narrow comb, the sunken eye, and 
the length of legs. The breast comes fairly well back, but not 
well forward. In 111. 1 the bill is short and stout, but not as 
well curved as I should like. Note the breadth of the head, the 
prominence and brightness of the eye, the short and stout neck, 
the great width of the breast, the fullness caused largely by the 
breastbone extending well forward, the short, stout legs that 
are straight under the body, and the width between the legs. 
There is an expression about this chicken that impresses one as 
being the essence of vigor. 

"The back should be broad to give lung and heart capacity, 
and, further, this width should extend well back to the tail-head. 
Avoid the wedge-shaped back as seen in some fowls that have 
great width at the shoulders and taper rapidly toward the tail- 
head. 

"It is much easier to get good shaped market females than 
it is to get good cockerels. * * * The farmers have gone to 
raising big chickens and are asking for large, overgrown cockerels 
for breeders and, further, birds that have excessive depth. 
The result is, we get chickens when dressed weighing four to 
five pounds each that have immense, high breast-bones and very 
long legs. These are not attractive to the buyers and sell at 
a less price per pound than plumper birds. For example, if 
given two birds of the same width of breast, one is one and a 
half inches deeper in the breast than the other, the result will be, 
the one bird looks plump and sells readily, the other lacks plump- 
ness and sells slowly. This can be bred out by using such males 
as 111. 1. 

"I wish to have birds as well built as we can get them. 
111. 1 is as near the ideal market chicken as I have seen in the 
breed he represents. The hen as seen in 111. 4 is of a good 
market type. Note the width and fullness of breast. As a 
breeder she is a little fine in bone, and rather too small. She 
has, however, that blocky appearance that is desirable." 

There has been far too great a use of big, coarse breeding 
males, the thought appearing to be that size (mere "bigness") 
indicated a strong constitution, and the note of warning sound- 
ed by Prof. Graham is most timely. In broiler chickens, too, 
fineness of bone is most important. The fineboned carcass 
gives a larger proportion of meat to bone (waste), and the 
coarser framed bird has the knife-edge breast, rather than the 
round, plump breast which has so attractive an appearance. 
Then, too, the finer boned birds take on fat more readily; it 
will generally be found that the birds which will not fatten 
and that it is seemingly impossible to get in good, marketable 
condition, are the long-legged, thin-bodied, angular birds be- 
gotten by the big, coarse ancestors which have come to be used 
because of this craze for mere "bigness!" If we will but take 
heed to the suggestions given us by Prof. Graham there will be 
a notable improvement in the "type" of bird we send to market; 
the improvement in type resulting in a bettering of quality, 



77 



ARllIklAI INCUBATING AND BROODING 



morning 



an increased price, quicker sales and honor profits to the poultry- 
man. 

PROPER BROODING HOUSES ESSENTIAL 

1 spoke of the remarkable attraction that broiler raising 
ned to have for the beginners in poultry work, and to such 
the very great bettering of incubators and brooding and feeding 
eon great boon. The distressing Failures, such as I have 

d many of, should now be less con mon. One such, in a 
pleasant town about thirty miles west of Philadelphia, is worth 
citing as a warning. In tins case two young mon from the city 
had thought to hot tor their pecuniary condition by broiler 
raising. They built a hot water pipe brooder house a hundred 
feet Ions:, bought five hundred eggs and wont to work. A friend 
with whom 1 was making an over-night visit 
told me of their poor success, and suggested 
that we drive over 
and see them. W 
we found them 
co n t emplating 
an incubator full 
of eggs which 
s h o u 1 d h a v e 
hatched the day 
before, and from 
which not one 
chick had come. 
Closing the shut- 
ters (the incu- 
bators were be- 
ing run in the 
old farm house 
parlor), we test- 
ed about half 
the eggs, and 
told them they 
hadn't ventila- 
ted the incuba- 
tor at all (ap- 
parently); had 
not put any 
moisture in the 
machine the 
18th day, and, in a< 
tion to those liandic: 
their eggs were c 
about half fertile, so t 
were only entitled 
about 150 chicki 
anyway. 

The air was "bl 
for a little wl 
but talking did no g< 
and while they in their 
lurid dreams had pictured a chicken 
from every egg fin winter at that!), I 
tent fact wae their work was a fail- 
ure. They had already incubated 
over 2,000 egg- and hatched less 

than 300 chickens, and the brooder house showed at a glance 
the moment we entered it that no one could "raise" chickens 
in it. There was a "chill" in the air that went to the 
marrow, and chicks cannot possibly be grown in such an 
atmosphere. The brooder house had been built with 
half-dried lumber, after freezing weather came in the early 
winter, and to save fifty dollars or so a heater two 
sizes too -mall had been bought. There was no heat ex- 
cept ' Sow and two return pipe- under the hovers, and 
the hover-, were close up against the partition along the walk. 




Compare such a defective brooder house with the one in 

Use at another farm which 1 also had the fortune to visit 
and which is in striking contrast. There is a. brooder 

house equipped with abundant heating pipes under the 
hovers, Inning a bank of auxilliary heating pipes along the 
walk, to warm t ho house, and an adequate heater for the coldest 
weather. Then there is an electric regulator connected with a 
thermostat under one of the hovers, and which opens or closes 
the dampers as the temperature falls or rises from the point 
desired. Moreover, the hovers are not back against the walk 
partition, but out about three feet from it; there is no confined 
(dead) air under such hovers and no possibility of chicks crowd- 
ing each other back against a back wall and smothering some. 

Of course such a brooder 
house costs more than a 
cheaply built and inade- 
quately heated one, but it 
"raises the chicks," and 
therefore pays 
the added cost 
over and over, 
instead of aiding 
to pass them 
along to the fer- 
tilizer heap. 

MUST BE 
WELL HATCHED 

Chicks t o 
grow well must 
be well hatch- 
ed. It is a seri- 
ous handicap to 
the baby life to 
have great diffi- 
culty in getting 
out of the shell; 
sometimes the 
struggle for ex- 
clusion is so 
violent and ex- 
hausting that 
the chick has 
little chance of 
making a live 
of it. There are 
various causes 
for this, such as 
too high or too 
low average temperature 
in the incubator, irregu- 
larity of temperature, and 
other eccentricities; poor 
eggs, owing to the laying 
stock beiiig out of condi- 
tion, is another potent 
cause. With the well 
made, up-to-date and well 
ventilated incubators of 
to-day there is no reason for poorly hatched chicks if direc- 
tions are closely followed, provided, of course, that the 
eggs are good and strong. The most important thing is 
that the right temperature be maintained in the incubator, 
and that it be steadily ' maintained. It is wiser to err 
upon the side of a bit too high temperature than letting 
it run low; it is the opinion of incubator operators 
that just a little too much is better than running the 
risk of the temperature going too low. This is especially 
true in winter hatching. As a general rule, the colder 



i po- .^_ 

59— HOW MARKET QUALIFICATIONS MAY BE TRANSMITTED 



78 



PROFITABLE BROILER RAISING 

the weather the stronger (or slightly higher) the average tern- the hatch, so familiar does he become with the appearance and 

perature should be. condition of the strong, vigorous embryo chicks. 

running an incubator When the first chicks begin to pip the shells close the ven- 

rp, , ., i r . • i , . r tilator slides almost wholly and keep the doors of the incuba- 

Ihe daily task of running an incubator consists of turn- , , , , ., ,, , , , . „ ., . . . ,, 

,, , . , . , . , , , , ., „„. tor closed until the hatch is well over; it is better to leave the 

ing the eggs twice a day, morning and night, and daily filling „ u . ,. , , „ ,, . ' ... , . , 

\ , . . ,, , _. ,..■,., , , . . machine entirely alone for the twenty-four to thirty-six hours 

and trimming the lamp. Ordinarily the lamp trimming can , . , . , ., , . , , , ,. . , : , 

,,,, , ,, .,,, ,,. tt .,, . , during which the chicks are hatching. A good, strong heat, 

best be done about the middle of the afternoon, in the interval -.„. ,„,, . , . U1 . , . ,. ,. it _ ' 

, , , ,. ,, , . , j.j. „ , ; , ,. „ , even up to 104 or 104i is desirable at hatching time, as the 

between feeding the chicks and before the last feeding of the , ■ , c , , , TT1 A , , . , . „ 

i A , , , , , , ., , . , , , , . , chicks come out faster and better. When the hatch is well 

hens. About the seventh day the eggs should be tested, which ,, ,., ,. ,., . ,, , , ,. , 

. ,-. • i ,. c ,, .;, , over open the ventilating slides again, to give the baby chicks 

is the simple operation of passing the eggs, with the large end „ . , , , , , ., „ ., . , ,.,, , 

v t ,. ,. , , j ,? .,,, ' . ,. . more air, but do not take them from the incubator till twenty- 

up, before a testing light and noting ; if he egg contains a living f Qur hourg after ^ ^ . g ^ 

germ, lhe germ is a dark (almost black), spider-like spot upon 

the side of the yolk, and the stronger and darker the germ ap- brooding and feeding the chicks 

pears the better. An egg which is absolutely clear is infertile, The temperature under the brooder hovers should be about 

and should be saved out (to be eaten in omelettes or scrambled, 95 degrees at first, gradually lowering it to 90 degrees when 

or sold to the bake shop to be used in cooking.) Now and then a the chicks are about a week old, and thus dropping about 

dead germ will be found, evidenced by reddish circles about five degrees each week. An experienced chicken raiser says he 

the yolk or a generally cloudy appearance of the egg. These wants the heat under the hovers to be 90 when the chicks are 

should be thrown in the manure pile, or may be fed to hogs. put ill; and that their heat will bring the temperature up to about 

After the test there will be fewer eggs left in the machine, 95 degrees; lower it to 90 and by end of first week, 85 at end of , 

but as each egg contains a life and life means animal heat, sec0 nd week, 80 at end of third week, 75 at end of fourth week, 

we may soon expect to note a slight increase in the tempera- and S o on. In such a brooder house as the one I have fully 

ture. This should be met by slightly turning down the nut described above, the hover pipes are about three inches from 

on the regulator rod each day, or every other day, as the con- the sand floor in the small pens next the heater, where the 

ditions seem to require. The directions sent out with each in- baby chicks are put. The space between pipes and floor gradu- 

cubator are the guide to follow, and these directions say 103 a n y increases, until it is about eight inches at the end furthest 

degrees is the proper temperature to maintain. As we said f rom the heater, where the oldest chicks are brooded. It is 

above, we would err on the side of a bit more than the desig- the custom to move the chicks along as they increase in size, 

nated temperature, rather than fall below it. One of the most they being driven from pen to pen through a sliding gate in the 

successful incubator operators of our acquaintance does not partition between the pens. 

pretend to keep his machines at exactly 103. He says that One of the most successful broiler raisers of my acquain- 

atmospheric conditions vary, causing variations in tempera- tance has smaller brooder houses (ten of them), each about 

ture, and if he keeps between 101 and 105, with an average s i x ty feet long, and the chicks are never moved from the pens 

close to 103, he gets good hatches of strong, vigorous chicks. j n w bj c h they are first put until they are taken out to dress for 

An article written by Col. Roessell, formerly poultry edi- market. 
tor of the "Country Gentleman," gives the following: "The On another very successful broiler (and roaster) farm, in 

: guide which is most reliable in determining the progress of the Massachusetts, they have entirely removed the hovers from 

hatch is the development of the air cell. This is a little space the brooder pens, built up the sand floor an inch higher, and 

in the large end of the egg which is visible at testing time, the chicks put their backs up against the warm pipes,— just 

and should continue to grow larger and larger until about the as they do against the hen's body when brooded by a hen. It 

nineteenth day, when it occupies about one-fifth of the entire looks comical to see the chicks under and between the hover 

•egg. Unless this air cell is developed correctly by the nine- pi pe s, their tiny heads sticking above the pipes quite frequently, 

teenth day the chick cannot turn itself in the shell, hence sticks The people at the farm say they get better results since they 

fast and dies, although it may be fully developed. The de- removed the hovers, that the chicks grow better and faster, 
velopment of this air cell is the vital point to be considered 

in obtaining a first class hatch. It is controlled in two ways. feeding the chicks 

If it develops slowly, which is usually the case, give the ma- Feeding has been the stumbling block over which many 
chine and eggs all the air you can. This can be done by open- a would-be broiler raiser has fallen. The dismal wail of "bowel 
ing the slides over the ventilators full width and cooling the trouble," usually caused by improper feeding (although too 
eggs as long as possible each day. The cooling is best accom- much or too little heat, or a "chill" may contribute) has marked 
plished by placing the trays of eggs on top of the machine the beginning of failure. Here is where the great gain in feed- 
closing the doors meanwhile), and leaving them there until ing methods has come in, of which we spoke at the outset and 
the thermometer drops to 80 degrees, not lower. As the hatch which has brought about what appears now to be a revolution, 
progresses the eggs will stand more and more cooling." Instead of the mixed messes of meals, etc., the ready mixed 

This is excellent advice, and the novice will need especially chick foods, consisting of a large variety of seeds and grains, 

to observe the last sentence; the novice usually errs upon the are fed; with the gratifying result of comparatively little infant 

side of too little airing and cooling. It is sometimes better, in mortality and a much more rapid growth. 

cold weather, to cool and air the eggs within the machine, We show here a table of the results obtained with 

leaving the doors open until the thermometer drops to about White Wyandotte chicks of different ages, and the article des- 

eighty degrees; and sometimes, in quite warm weather, it will cribing them gave the following weights of the chicks: 

be necessary to leave the eggs out several hours to get them Newly hatched chicks, per pair .4 ounces 

cooled to about eighty degrees. No matter, not only is the Four days old chicks, per pair 4 ounces 

exposure not harmful, but the fresh air strengthens the embryo Ten days old chicks, per pair 8 ounces 

chicks. Three weeks old chicks, per pair 16 ounces 

Most operators test the eggs a second time about the fif- Four weeks old chicks, per pair 1^ pounds 

teenth day, testing out the dead germs and leaving in only the Eight weeks old chicks, per pair 4 pounds 

strong and vigorous germs. An expert operator can tell on the Ten weeks old chicks, per pair 6 pounds 

fifteenth day pretty nearly how many chicks he will get from Experienced broiler raisers expect to bring broiler chicks 

7') 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING 



to two pounds weight (apiece) in ten to eleven weeks, and 
hare we have eight weeks old ohioks of full two pounds weight, 
and ten weeks old chicks weighing three pounds apiece. That 
difference of two to three weeks clipped oil' from the old time 
ten to eleven weeks considered necessary to grow a two-pound 
broiler makes a tremendous gain in profits. A saving of twenty 
to twenty-live per cent in time greatly increases the capacity 
of the brooder houses, as well as saves so much labor and food; 
and this in addition to the practical elimination of the vexing 
"bowel trouble" problem and the dreaded infant mortality. 
Assuming that the business paid a fair profit as formerly con- 
ducted, such a saving of time and labor will greatly increase 
the profits. 

This most successful broiler raiser's method of feeding is 
worthTquoting, by way of getting "a point of view." It was 
given as follows: "The chicks are fed five times a day on 




60— CONVENIENT CRATES FOR FEEDING 

hulled oats mostly, with a little cracked wheat and millet seed 
added. The cracked wheat is changed to whole wheat when 
they are about a week or ten days old, and cracked corn is fed 
after they are a week older, which brings them to three weeks 
of age. After this they are fed three times a day; a mash in 
the morning, wheat at noon and cracked corn at night, with a 
feed or cut fresh bone the middle of the afternoon. The mash 
is made of either corn meal or gluten meal, and wheat bran, 
with a ration of meat meal, light at first and more of it towards 
the "finishing off." Green food they get each afternoon, in the 
shape of lawn mower clippings when the grass is growing; later 
in the shafX; of rape, hi winter finely cut clover is steamed 
and fed them." 

Feeding, he claims, is the crucial point, Said he, "A care- 
less or indifferent feeder will do more harm and waste more 
food than the profits amount to." The test of good feeding is 
to keeps the chicks just a little hungry, and the best judgment 
of the feeder should be brought to bear. His rule is to give no 
food to a pen if \\ihr<-. j-, any left uneaten from the last feed- 
ing. Many chick rai • i mistakenly think that one feeding 



missed is a step in growth lost. In a limited sense this is true, 
but a greater loss in growth comes from the chicks overeating 
and the appetite becoming cloyed. Not only does a careless 
feeder waste the food, but he puts the chicks out of condition 
and checks their growth by cloying them, by taking away their 
appetite. If food is left before them all the time they will 
actually eat less, and make a slower growth than if fed judi- 
ciously and kept a little bit hungry. 

Another writer, describing the methods of a New Jersey 
broiler raiser, says: "At first the chicks are fed the infertile 
eggs, cooked, mixed with bread crumbs and rolled oats; then 
gradually corn meal and bran are added to the ration. After 
a hatch is off everything left in the incubators, shells, chicks 
that have failed to come out, whether fully grown or not, are 
all cooked up; equal parts of corn meal and bran, with about 
ten per cent of beef scraps are added and this mixture is used 

to feed chicks that are two 
weeks old. It is said to make 
a perfectly wholesome food. 
The chicks are fed all they 
will eat three or four times a 
day. 

"Fattening these small 
birds is a difficult problem. 
The natural tendency is to-. 
make growth instead of lay- 
ing on fat. For the last ten 
days before killing the ration 
consists of two parts corn 
meal, one part bran, about ten 
per cent cottonseed meal and. 
from twenty-five to thirty per 
cent beef scraps. This seems 
like a heavy feeding of meat, 
and of course would not do 
for chicks that are to be raised 
to maturity. The proper weight 
for killing, twelve ounces, is- 
reached at about six weeks; 
however, some reach that 
weight sooner than others." 

This writer gives six 
weeks as the time of raising 
these twelve-ounce squab 
broilers by that feeding meth- 
od. The White Wyandotte 
chicks which are described 
here, and whose weights are 
given above, grew to the same weight in exactly four weeks; 
a saving of thirty-three and a third per cent of time, brooder 
house room and labor. That saving would fully double the profits, 
and that saving is made by the improved method of feeding, 
by feeding a ready mixed ration of seeds and grains. 

MARKETING THE BROILERS 

Most broiler chickens are marketed "dry picked." This is- 
partly due to the fact that the people educated up to appreciat- 
ing fine broilers are critical, and the better appearance of the 
dry picked chicken both enhances its value and increases the 
consumptive demand. Most of the picking is done by profes- 
sionals, who are paid so much' apiece., and who go from one 
broiler plant to another as work is offered. The usual price 
paid for picking broilers is three to four cents apiece, and the 
picker engaged to pick them not infrequently employs "pin- 
ners" to assist him. He does the killing and "rough-picking,"' 
and passes the chicks on to the pinners to finish; the pin feath- 
ering and cleaning up requiring patience and nimble fingers. 



80 



PROFITABLE BROILER RAISING 



NICE WORK IMPORTANT 

It is of great importance that the work be nicely (care- 
fully) done, as a torn and marred chick is less attractive and 
fetches a lower price. The most successful broiler raiser quoted 
above pays five cents per chick for killing and picking, and 
when we commented upon the rather higher price than is gen- 
erally paid he said: "I would rather pay that price and have 
the chicks carefully picked, the man picking fifty to sixty chick- 
ens a day, than to have a man earn the same amount of money 
by hurriedly picking one hundred a day. It is quite easy for 
a picker to 'skimp' his work, and the broilers would be a cheaper 
looking lot in consequence, shrinking the price perhaps four or 
five cents a pound." In other words, quality pays in broilers 
as well as in other things, and the fact that this 
man's broilers frequently bring him five cents a 
pound above the highest market quotations, ap- 
proves the .policy of paying the picker a good 
enough price to insure having the chicks carefully 
picked. 

A good many farmers and small poultry 
growers ship their chickens alive to a commission 
dealer, who, in turn, sells them to a picker, who 
kills, dresses and markets them. Almost always 
these chicks shipped in alive, are not really good 
broilers; they 
are usually 
"lean" and thin, 
not plump and 
round, not well- 
fattened. A 
good business is 
done in buying 
up these "range" 
chickens, feed- 
ing them a fat- 
ten i n g ration 
for two to three 
weeks, and then 
dressing them 
for market ; 
which is some- 



Mr. Pollard says: "In dressing chickens for market, they are 
killed by cutting the vein and penetrating the brain at a point 
well back in the roof of the mouth. A deep cut at just the 
right point will so paralyze the nerves of the bird that the 
feathers will pick very easily, and much of the trouble in tear- 
ing the skin will be avoided. The chickens are dry picked. All 
the feathers are taken from the carcass with the exception of 
the tips of the wings, and from these all the quill feathers are 
picked. If the birds have feathered legs these are also picked. 
The heads are left on, and the entrails are not drawn. After 
picking and carefully pin-feathering, they are dropped into huge 
tanks of water and left a suitable time to cool. In hot weather 
this water is iced in order to more quickly remove the animal 




heat. They are then 
rinsed and the blood 
cleaned from their 
heads, and are laid on 
a bench for the water 
to drain off. After 
draining those that are 
nearest alike are pair- 
ed together, the legs 
being tied with twine, 
and they are hung in 
a cool, dark room until 
the following morning, 
when they are packed 
and shipped to mar- 
ket." 

THERE IS 
PROFIT IN BROILERS 



BLOCKING CHICKENS INTO SHAPE 



The upper view shows a row of chickens in a right-angle trough or shaper", 
which rests on two barrels. The shapers are placed in convenient frames in the 
middle and lower views. 



what similar to the fattening done in England and France, the 
birds there being almost always bought from farmers and 
small growers, brought to the fattening station and fattened for 
market. There is a substantial loss to the grower who does 
not fatten his own chickens; selling them in the "lean" condi- 
tion means that they are very poor in quality and sell at a low 
price if marketed at once, if bought by a fattener and put in 
good, marketable condition the fattener gets the bulk of the 
profits; he gets pay for the increase in quantity of flesh and the 
premium paid for the better quality. 

In an article written and published some few years ago, 



That there is good 
money made in raising 
broilers a careful study 
of the business reveals. 
There is a great de- 
mand for this class of poultry meat, and of the best grade there is 
never a sufficient supply; furthermore, the demand is constantly 
increasing and will be still further increased by a better average 
quality of broilers marketed. Another point in favor of broiler 
raising is that the work-season of broiler raising for the high- 
est prices comes at a time when other work is slack, hence the 
time utilized in the broiler raising is not wanted in other de- 
partments of the poultry work. Take advantage of the highest 
prices of March, April and May, and produce the very best 
quality of broiler chicks, and the resulting profits will be emi- 
nently satisfactory. 



81 



ARTIFICIAL 1NCIHAF1NG AND BROODING 



\SP^ 



THB BEST VARIETIES FOR BROILERS 

The beet broiler chick is one that is grown quickly ami fat- 
tens readily, is fine-boned and plump, 
full breasted, has a rich, yellow skin. 
and the strong constitution thai will 
stand farced feeding. Undoubtedly 
the American breeds most nearly till 
the bill. The white and buff varieties 
have the added advantage of freedom 
from dark pin feathers. A prominent 
broiler raiser lays strong emphasis 
ujxm the necessity of strength and 
1 r in the parent stock if we would 
have chicks that would live and grow. 

"There is no question that many 
of the failures in broiler raising have 
come through improper tools with 
which to work, and a general misun- 
derstanding of the best means to the 
end aimed at. which in this case is the 
plump, yellow and juicy little chick, 
which weighs from one and one- 
half to two pounds when dressed, 
or two to two and one-half 
pounds alive. Heavier birds 
may be used, but these are 
the weights which are best 
suited to the demand and sell 
most readily, which means, of 
course, at the best prices. 

"How to get these plump, 
yellow chickens is the problem 
which we shall try to solve, In- 
stead of beginning with the egg 
which is to produce the chick, 
we should go farther back, even 
back of the hen which lays the 
eggs, and find the health and 
strength of her ancestry. In other 
words, we examine her family tree. 
If, on due examination, we find the 
hen which is to lay our eggs is the 
offspring of some generations of strong, 
healthy birds, we may safely depend on 
her giving us the proper material on 
which to build our broiler structure. 
There never has been, and never will 
be, a successful broiler business built 
up on eggs from other than stock in 
]*-rfeet health and of strong vitality. 
The reasons are plain to see. In or- 
der to get your quick-grown, juicy 
broiler, there must be a forced growth 
from the very hatching, and the 
chicks must have the stamina and 
the vitality which alone come through 
inheritance, and which enable him to 
ad the hardest feeding and keep 
him busy and happy. The chickens 
from poorly fed, ill-developed parent 
ck, of hit-or-mies breeding, cannot, 
and will not, fill the bill. 

"Next, after the strong, vigorous 
ancestry, we look for shape and color. 
Shape first, as on shape depends the 
ability to lay on flesh in the right 
place and in the proper proportions. 
Any of the American breeds will 



PC XJUi.L^ l l.mii CAJ»y 




62- 



PR1ZE DRESSED 
82 



answer this purpose. The oldest and best known is the Barr- 
ed Plymouth Rocks, and they, when rightly bred for this use, 

are splendid birds. Strong, hardy, 
and active, they grow quickly, and 
are good feeders. The Leghorns, while 
advocated by some, are too small 
boned and too sprightly to get up 
to weight quickly enough. The 
Asiatics are generally too large framed 
and too angular, when at the right 
weight, to satisfy a fastidious market. 
The Wyandotte family, as a whole, 
provides the best means to the broiler 
raiser. They are fine boned, yet with 
the plumpest breast development of 
any of the suitable breeds, and have 
stout, wide-apart legs and yellow skin. 
"With these natural structural 
qualities, the Wyandottes unite the 
ability to fully assimilate the strong 
feeding which goes with all attempts 
to produce suitable chickens for this 
purpose. Of the varieties of Wyan- 
dottes either the Buff or White would 
certainly be preferable to the Laced,' on 
account of the freedom from the dark 
pin feathers found in the others. 
This same reason, aside from the fact 
of their longer establishment as a 
pure breed, would give the Whites 
the preference." 

Visits to the great market 
poultry raisers south of Boston 
reveal many varieties of stock 
used with the Light Brahma 
most in evidence; this is pro- 
bably due to the fact that while 
raising broilers for market they 
are by no means exclusively 
broiler raisers, but grow large 
numbers of soft roasting chick- 
ens and capons. Next to the 
Light Brahmas a cross of B. P. 
Rock male on Light Brahma 
female is popular, and the well 
known market poultryman, Mr. 
J. H. Curtiss, places the White 
Plymouth Rocks at the very top 
of the list for all-round utility 
qualities. The same can be said of the 
"May R. Poultry Plant," while the 
Mr. Twining quoted above grew his 
broilers from Barred Plymouth Rock 
eggs bought of farmers living in his 
neighborhood. In all cases excepting 
possibly the "May R. Poultry Plant" 
the stock described is "farmers" 
stock of the varieties, and would no 
doubt be found lacking in some points 
essential in show birds. 

DIFFERENT KINDS OF BROILERS 

Frequent mention is made of 
"squab broilers," and yet we do not 
recall ever seeing them quoted in the 
market reports. Generally the squab 
broilers are little six or seven weeks 
old chicks that weigh, dressed, three 
quarters of a pound to one pound 



'OULTRY 



PROFITABLE BROILER RAISING 



each; they are split down the middle and broiled for in- 
dividual orders in high class hotels, restaurants and clubs. Mr. 
Duston tells us he "sold hundreds weighing eight ounces each," 
which is half a pound, and are the smallest broilers of which 
we have ever heard. There is a quite steady sale for squab 
broilers throughout the year, but, practically, all the trade is 
in the hands of dealers who have the finest private family trade 
and that of the swell hotels and clubs. 

The broiler of commerce is a one and a half to two pound 
chicken, is split in half and served, broiled ("grilled") to two 
customers; a half to an individual customer. In a few instances 
we have known of these tender morsels of chicken flesh being 
stuffed and roasted, then split in halves and served to two in- 
dividual customers. 

A change has been gradually coming about, in the intro- 
duction of prepared (mixed) chick foods, and these special foods 
have given remarkable results in quick growth. Mr. Twining 



(quoted above) told us he couldn't grow a two pound broiler in 
eight weeks; that it took him nine weeks (on an average) to 
grow a one and a half pound broiler and about eleven weeks 
to bring them to two pounds weight. We have known of 
White Wyandotte chicks that grew to two pounds apiece at 
eight weeks old, and those chicks were not "forced" at 
all; they were fed one of the special chick foods adver- 
tised in our columns and made the splendid growth there 
chronicled in the natural manner. Obviously there is a 
decidedly greater profit in two pound chicks at eight weeks old 
than in two pound chicks at eleven weeks old; we cut off a 
fourth of the labor and food-charge, and coal for heat, at a 
stroke. We have seen that there was a goodly profit in the 
plump and juicy broiler that grew to two pounds weight in 
eleven to twelve weeks; it is easy to see a still greater profit 
in the same product grown in eight weeks. 




83 




63— SEVEN ACES OF THE PEKIN DUCK 



HATCHING AND BROODING OF DUCKS 




ARTIFICIAL HATCHING OF DUCKS 



A PROFITABLE INDUSTRY IN WHICH THE FARMER HAS MANY ADVANTAGES- 
HOUSES AND FIXTURES REQUIRED— BROODING AND RAISING THE DUCKLINGS- 
SELECTING AND FEEDING THE BREEDERS— FATTENING— PREPARING FOR MARKET 

H. A. NOURSE 



Within recent years the raising of ducks has groivn from condi- 
tions under which afeiv ducks raised themselves, so to speak, ^without 
particular care from the oivner, to an industry, of immense magnitude 
managed with the strictest care as to details and representing an 
annual investment of many thousands of dollars. Under other than 
artificial means of incubating and brooding such a wonderful devel- 
opment would ha<ve been absolutely impossible. 

It then seems fitting that in a work of this character the incubat- 
ing and brooding of ducks by artificial means should receive the atten- 
tion which its importance as an industry merits. — Editor. 

YOUNG duck carrying five pounds or more of sal- 
able weight that will command an average price 
of twenty cents per pound can be placed on the 
market eight weeks from the date of hatching. 
This is quick work — turning a profit in twelve 
weeks from the time the egg is laid — and no 
proof is needed that a substantial profit can be 
realized on ducks so marketed. Therefore, since the loss of 
ducklings need not be over five per cent (frequently it is not 




over two per cent), and the equipment required is neither ex- 
tensive nor expensive, there is money in raising ducks for any- 
one who will make an honest, intelligent effort to get it. 

Growers of ducks frequently have everything to buy at 
market prices and some even have to go off their farms to se- 
cure sufficient green food for their flocks. The farmer with 
his wide acres is prepared to feed ducks at the minimum cost. 
He has at hand much of the grain produced on the farm at less 
than its market value and this the exclusive duck raiser has to 
pay good money for. The vegetables, which are often difficult 
for the duckman to obtain, the farmer sorts out from his pota- 
toes, turnips, beets, cabbages, etc., and places but little value 
upon them. Fed to ducks this inferior quality will produce 
meat salable at fifteen to thirty cents per pound. If the far- 
mer is a dairyman the skim milk fed to stock ducks furnishes 
the best of nourishment at little cost and if fed to growing 
ducklings will produce twice or three times the value it would 
if fed to swine. 

Nearly one-third the bulk of food for breeding ducks may 
consist of vegetables and clover. The latter can be grown on 



35 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING 



the farm and cured in the shade of the orchard OT on the barn 
floor out of the sun. but open to the fresh air where it will cure 
perfectly and it ston.nl away in a elean. dry place it will make 
the best of green food when treated with boiling water and 
added to the mash. 

There is always a demand for well fattened ducks, and a 
simple announcement that they can be secured is all the re- 
quirement necessary in localities where the flavor is known. 

Thus it is seen that the fanner is able to secure the last 
cent that the profitable business will yield and that for little cost, 

As before stated, expensive buildings are unnecessary and 
since additional capital expended means less profit on the in- 
Itment they are not desirable. A house built with a shed 
roof, high enough to give head room to the attendant and 
twelve feet wide exclusive of alley, or fifteen feet if a walk or 
alley is desired, will accommodate two ducks to each foot of 
length. It may be framed of two by four inch pieces, these to 
be covered with barn boards and roofing material. Such a 
building should be located on a well drained spot, facing south 
or southeast when convenient, with liberal yard room enclosed 
by a wire netting fence two feet high. One window in each 
twelve feet of house length will admit sufficient light to the pens. 

Opinions differ somewhat as to the utility of a walk, some 
claiming that it is nearly as easy and far better for the care- 
taker to go from pen to pen over the division boards two feet 
high because he exercises more care in distributing the food; 
but in a house fifty feet long or more the argument is in favor 
of a walk at least three feet wide along which the feeder can 
pass, feeding the occupants of each pen over the low partition 
or carrying fresh bedding or removing the old when cleaning 
the house, without frightening the inmates. 

A floor of earth made by filling in to the top of the founda- 
tion is better than boards or cement, which hold the water 
spilled by the ducks about the water fountains, making the 
pen damp and uncomfortable, requiring far more bedding to 
make it habitable. 

The lien.- may be twelve feet square, with the yards of cor- 
responding width. If the partition separating the pens from the 
walk is made with laths set two and a half inches apart the 
drinking water may conveniently be given in V-shaped troughs 
at least half as long as each pen, placed in the walk where the 
ducks can reach them through the slats. If water is piped to 
the house, a trough extending the length of the house and con- 
nected with the piping makes it possible to water the houseful 
of ducks by simply turning on the water. In a long house this 
is a great time saver. 

A hopper or box with compartments for shell, charcoal and 
grit and a trough for food completes the equipment of the 
stock duck house. 

BROODERS AND BROOD HOUSES 

The cost and construction o r the brooding equipment nat- 
urally depends upon the extent of the operations contemplated. 
Frequently there are buildings about the farm in which could 
be placed brooders enough to raise several hundred ducklings, 
but we will consider that the importance of this branch of farm 
industry warrants building those required. 

A brooder house sixty feet long, fifteen wide, arranged with 
an alley or walk three feet wide next the north wall, having 
pena twelve by five feet, will enable the builder to properly 
brood one thousand or more young ducks to sell during the sea- 
son of good prices. The early ducks are the money makers, and 
ecure the warmth necessary for the best growth of the lit- 
tle one-, besides economizing fuel, it is advisable to build this 
house snug and warm, but with windows and doors sufficient to 
thoroughly ventilate and cool the house in spring. 

If a good house of this kind is built the least expensive and 
probably roost satisfactory method of brooding is with hovers 
heated by hot water pipes. These hovers should be two feet 



six inches wide and extend through eight of the pens, leaving 
four pens without hovers in which to temper the ducklings be- 
fore removing them to other houses or to yards outside. To 
heat these hovers four one and one-half inch pipes, two flow 
and two return, are needed, attached to a water jacket stove 
or small boiler. 

Eight lamp brooders can take the place of these hovers, if 
it seems desirable, and a hot water pipe system may be in- 
stalled to warm the house in cold weather or omitted entirely 
at the builder's option. The combination of lamp brooders and 
pipe system is a good one especially useful in the early season, 
while the lamp brooders alone will suffice in wanner weather. 

If operations are fairly extensive and work is begun early 
in the season it is convenient to have one or two other wind 
and water tight buildings to which the young ones can be taken 
when forced out of the brooder house by the new arrivals from 




64— HEALTHY DUCKLINGS TWO WEEKS OLD 

the incubators; but if the weather is warm before the brooder 
house becomes congested and the occupants are nearly feather- 
ed no more house room will be needed and yards of good size 
enclosed by fencing two feet high, with a provision for shade 
from the sun, will accommodate the ducks in flocks of fifty to- 
two hundred. 

I have not made special provision for an incubator room 
because a dry, well ventilated basement or an unoccupied room 
in a house will answer for the work better than many houses- 
that have been built for the purpose. 

This is practically all of the equipment needed and it will 
last for years, making each year's share of the cost but little. 

What branch of animal industry on the farm will so quick- 
ly turn so large a profit for the expense incurred? 

SELECTING AND FEEDING THE BREEDERS 

Quality is the point of importance when buying breeding 
stock, for the influence of the original purchase lasts for years- 
and determines to some extent the value of each season's pro- 
duct. Vigor is the primary consideration. The degree of profit 
depends upon the ability of the individual specimen to digest 
rapidly and well every ounce of food, turning it into flesh with 
the least waste, which is the work of a healthy, vigorous system. 
Large birds are desirable, but not monstrosities, and a well- 
shaped, deep-keeled bird of a little more than medium size is 
more satisfactory than a larger one with a coarse, angular frame 
and consequent slower flesh development. 

Early hatched, fully developed young birds make the best- 
breeders, with well conditioned yearlings a close second. 



86 



HATCHING AND BROODING OF DUCKS 



A group of young ducks bought in the fall and well cared 
for through the winter will begin to lay in January and con- 
tinue through the spring. They should not be fed for laying 
in the fall or many of them will lay a litter in the early winter 
and not lay again until spring. A mash of vegetables and bran 
chiefly, with a ration of corn or wheat occasionally and very lit- 
tle meat, will prove a good bill of fare until Christmas, when 
it may be gradually strengthened until it contains something 
like one part of corn meal, one and a half of bran and the same 
of cooked vegetables or steamed clover plus ten per cent of 
beef scrap. This fed every morning and alternated with corn, 
wheat and oats at night, supplemented by plenty of fresh water 
and a supply of shells, grit and charcoal, will produce eggs 
that will hatch if the ducks are fed just as much as they will eat, 
and any remaining is removed after each meal from the trough 



nourishment and send them to the next season's breeding pens 
with lusty good health. 

RAISING AND FATTENING THE YOUNG DUCKS 

Incubating is in no way difficult and the method is identical 
with that recommended for hens' eggs except that one week 
longer time is necessary. The little ducks are placed in hovers 
having a temperature of ninety-five degrees, which after a 
couple of days is reduced to ninety and further reduced to 
eighty in two weeks' time. 

The first feeds are best composed of stale bread moistened 
with milk and a little fine sand or grit sprinkled in. This is 
gradually replaced by a simple combination of ground grains 
mixed with milk or water, to which is added five per cent of 
fine grit and a little meat scrap. One of the simplest rations 




65— FLOCK OF BREEDERS ENJOYING A LARGE INLAND POND 



in which both mash and whole grain are fed. 

When producing eggs steadily it is frequently necessary 
to increase the proportion of corn in the mash, the thin flesh 
of the ducks indicating the necessity. A specimen very thin in 
flesh will not produce strong, fertile eggs. 

When the young ones are developing, previous to the fat- 
tening period, those that make especially rapid and vigorous 
growth and show a symmetrical development should be se- 
lected for next season's breeders and when six weeks old should 
be separated from those intended for market. Place them in 
a well-grassed and shaded yard of considerable area to develop 
naturally until the cold weather of the fall drives them to win- 
ter quarters. The old ducks, breeders of the previous season, 
should be likewise turned out to pasture and may be allowed 
to forage for most of their food on free range if it is convenient 
for the owner. A swampy meadow, generally unused after the 
grass is cut, will supply a flock of ducks with over half of their 



consists of one part corn meal and two of bran mixed with milk 
and having five per cent each of beef scrap and grit added. 

These simple foods, with a liberal allowance of grass or 
garden truck and a supply of coarse grit and good water, will 
grow big ducks if other conditions are right 

Fattening is easy if the subjects are in good health, and 
three parts of corn meal, one part bran and one of scraps, mixed 
with milk when obtainable, will fatten the healthy duck in one 
week fit for the most exacting market. Some growers substi- 
tute an equal bulk of ground oats for half of the corn meal and 
claim better results. 

Killing and picking is simple and no loss need be sustained 
if reasonable care is taken when dry picking or scalding. The 
proper time to kill and best time to pick is when the first full 
coat of feathers has fully matured, which usually is about the 
end of the eighth week, when a well grown duck will be fat and 
heavy. 



87 



HATCHING, FEEDING AND MARKETING DUCKS 

THE GREAT GAIN IN USING INCUBATORS-FEEDING FOR QUICK GROWTH— PICK- 
ING. PACKING AND SHIPPING TO MARKET— SOME ITEMS FROM EXPERIENCE OF 
SUCCESSFUL BREEDERS-THE EARLY DUCKLINGS SHOULD HAVE BROODER HEAT 



A. F, HUNTER 




|HE development of the modern incubator has made 
possible the enormous growth of the market 
duck business. It is but a comparatively short 
time since very few ducks were sold in the city 

(markets, and these ducks were hatched under 
hens and reared on free range, usually with a 
brook or small pond as a feeding ground. Fancy 
batching twenty, thirty, or forty thousand duck- 
ling under hens! It is easily seen that the great duck ranches 
would be impossible without the aid of the modern incubators. 

No inconsiderable part of the great gain made by duck- 
meat in popular favor is due to the fact that the ducklings are 
hatched in incubators and rais- 
ed in brooders, and because they 
never go out of the compara- 
tively small pens of the brooder 
houses and fattening sheds 
until they are killed for market. 
We had a talk with three or 
four different marketmen re- 
cently upon this point, and 
asked them if they received any 
free range ducks now. Only 
one said that he had a few sent 
in from a farm up the state 
recently, and that he had quite 
a time selling them. They were 
-small, lean and tough; would 
be mighty poor eating unless 
parboiled for two or three hours 
before roasting, and he had to 
sell them to a cheap boarding 
house keeper for a little more 
than half what first-class ducks 
were worth. Probably the ship- 
per of those " puddle ducks " 
cannot understand that his pro- 
duct is very inferior to the 
quickly grown, tender and 
toothsome duck raised in con- 
finement. 

On the large duck ranches 
one man usually has charge of the incubators. Mr. Rankin 
takes care of the incubators on his farm, and has a general 
oversight of all the work. On the Messrs. Weber's duck farm 
one of the brothers runs the incubators and feeds the duck- 
lings in one of the brooder houses. On the McCormick- 
McFet ridge farm Mr. McFetridge handles the incubators, and 
finds time to oversee the work of all departments, but he has 
the incubator work so planned that he never wastes a minute 
in thinking what he must do next. He has forty-eight 360-egg 
incubators, which gives him twelve to set each week — when they 
are running full blast. As the eggs come in from the laying houses 
they are washedand placed in empty trays on the floor under 

machines next to be "set." These machines are filled on 
Tuesdays and Fridays, — six at a time. The eggs set on Tues- 
day are tested on the following Monday, and those set on 
Friday are tested on the following Thursday, and the ma- 



chines are emptied on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The 
machines should be left to dry out for a few days, those that 
are emptied on Saturday dry out till the following Tuesday 
and those that are emptied on Wednesday are empty till the 
following Friday. By having things thus systematized the 
work goes on with clock-like regularity, a most important aid 
to "getting things done." 

Duck eggs can be tested in four or five days, the dark spot 
which is the embryo being clearly seen as the egg is held up to 
the tester. On breaking the egg, this dark germ spot can be 
determined after one day's incubating, and is then about as 
large as a large pin-head. It practically doubles in size with 




66— FIVE-WEEKS-OLD DUCKLINGS THAT SHOW RESULTS OF SCIENTIFIC FEEDING 



each day of incubation, and on the sixth day is spread over a 
space as large as a quarter. The infertile eggs remain perfectly 
clear and should be taken out and boiled for the newly hatched 
ducklings, or may be used for human food; the dead germs 
should be removed from the incubator as soon as they are 
detected, as they will soon vitiate the air in the machine, which 
the living embryos have to breathe. When a duck egg inside 
the incubator shows a .discoloration of the shell remove it at 
once, as that is a dead germ. 

A duckling does not break the shell directly after it is 
pipped, but will lie quiet for twenty-four to forty-eight hours. 
At this time there should be plenty of moisture in the egg cham- 
ber, so much that it will condense and run down the glass of 
the door; if the membrane around the orifice of the shell dries 
the duckling may become attached to it and be unable to work 
his way out. When the hatch is well over the operator can take 



HATCHING AND BROODING OF DUCKS 



out the egg quickly, break the shell and release the duckling, 
putting him back at once into the warm machine. When 
nearly dried off the ducklings should be dropped down into the 
"nursery" space below the egg trays (if there is no opening 
through which they fall down), where the temperature is a few 
degrees cooler than in the trays; this also prevents their turning 
over and disturbing the unhatched eggs. About once in four 
or five hours the dry ducklings should be dropped down, but the 
work should be done quickly, so as to derange the temperature 
of the egg chamber as little as possible. After the hatch is well 
over let the ducklings remain in the nursery chamber for about 
twenty-four hours, then they are removed to the brooder house 
and put in the warmest pens, next to the heater. 

BROODING AND FEEDING THE DUCKLINGS 

To carry the ducklings from the incubator to the brooder 
house a square basket, about 2 feet 6 inches long by 15 to 18 
inches wide and a foot high, is the lightest and best thing. Some 
duck farms use handled boxes, similar in shape, but the added 
weight is a drawback. On the basket are close covers, hinged 
at the center, to keep the little fellows secure and protected from 
the wind. Such a basket as here described will hold about a 
hundred ducklings. When it is filled it is carried to the pen 




67— DUCKLINGS ONE WEEK OLD 

in the brooder house and the birds carefully tipped out onto the 
feed board, where a small supply of food has been placed. The 
food at first is the infertile egg boiled hard and chopped fine, 
mixed with about four times its bulk of stale bread crumbs, 
or cracker crumbs, and having about five per cent of its bulk 
coarse, sharp sand or fine (chick-size) gravel. They should be 
fed every two hours for the first few days, feeding only a little 
at a time, and see that the food is all eaten up before feeding 
again. If any food is left uneaten it should be cleaned off the 
boards and thrown on the fertilizer heap; it will be so soiled as 
to be unfit for feeding again. 

The temperature of the brooders should be about 90 degrees 
at first, and the animal heat of the little ducklings will bring 
the heat up to about 95. After carrying them through a cou- 
ple of nights at his temperature 90 degrees will be warm enough, 
and after a week 80 to 85 degrees. After the first few days the 



attendant can regulate the heat by the appearance of the duck- 
lings. If they seem happy and contented, and cuddle down 
comfortably under the hovers, they are warm enough. If, 
however, they bunch together and cry discontentedly, they need 
a little more heat. If they are disposed to push out from under 
the hover there is a little too much heat, and the temperature 
should be lowered to a point which will draw them in under 
the hover. 

At one plant the baby ducklings are confined close to the 
hovers by a board about a foot high, having two end-pieces 18 
inches long nailed across so that one end makes a pen 6 inches 
wide across the breadth of the pen, or, reversed, it makes a 
pen a foot wide across the pen. In very cold weather these 
partitions are put up at night to confine the ducklings close 
up to the warm hover space. On another large duck plant 
these partitions boards are fitted to slots fixed to the sides of 
the pens, and when taken up are slid up onto the top of the 
collar-beams (boards) overhead, and are always within reach 
when wanted. 

In an excellent article in the report of the R. I. State Board 
of Agriculture, the following feeding directions are given: "In. 
times past all sorts of mixtures and all kinds of fussing have 
been recommended in feeding young ducks. The biggest and 
best breeders of the present day, however, do very little fussing, 
and the food mixtures are of the plainest kind. I have found a 
mixture of two-thirds wheat bran and one-third corn meal, 
with a handful of fine gravel or coarse sand mixed in, for the 
first two or three days, sufficient for all their needs. If skim or 
whole milk is easy to get, it may be used to moisten this mixture 
to a crumbly consistency; otherwise either hot or cold water 
will answer. I frequently break raw eggs into the meals, in 
the proportion of two eggs to one quart of the dry grain. This 
must be thoroughly mixed in order that it may not be too pasty 
or sticky. After the first three days I omit the sand or fine 
gravel, and by the fifth day begin to feed a slight proportion of 
beef scrap. This proportion may be gradually increased until, 
at two weeks old, they are getting five per cent of beef scrap; at 
three weeks old their food should be one-half bran, one-half corn 
meal, and about seven per cent of the whole mixture beef scraps. 
Gradually increase the animal matter until at five weeks they 
are having 15 per cent. This proportion may be carried until 
killing time, which, under ordinary conditions, should be at 
ten weeks, when they should weigh from ten to twelve pounds 
per pair. 

"Early hatched ducklings should have brooder heat for 
practically the whole ten weeks. At least, they will require 
houses that are slightly warmed even after feathering, or too 
much of the food consumed will have to go toward making 
heat instead of flesh. After the warm spring months come the 
birds will require less heat, and after the first of May proba- 
bly fourteen to twenty days will be all the hover heat they will 
need. After that time a house dry and free from draughts 
will meet every requirement. It must be kept sweet and clean, 
however, and it becomes necessary to keep continually at the 
cleaning. 

"Dry planer shavings make the best litter for the floor for 
both old and young stock. Sawdust is fairly good, but mixes 
too readily with the food of the young birds. Straw and gravel 
are both bad, as they become wet quickly and are slow to dry. 
Whatever material is used, it must be kept dry or disaster will 
follow. Keep drinking water, grit and shell by the young birds 
at all hours. Have the water supply so that they can get at 
it night and day. This will save undue thirst and the loss of 
many of the birds by the tramping and wetting which comes 
after being shut away from the water for any length of time. 
Standing in a brooder building any moonlight night one can see 
a constant procession of little birds going to and from the water 
fountain, and this in itself is proof of the need of its being there." 



89 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING 



DRESSING AND MARKETING DUCKS 

Docks should bo dry picked for the eastern markets. In 
handling (as mottling them for the pickers), they should i>o 
caught and lifted by the nock; there is groat danger of break- 
ing a leg when they are caught by the legs, (hi large duck 
ranches the picking is done by professional pickers, who are 
paid so much |ht head for killing and dressing. The ducks 
are selected by the owner (or foreman) and cooped ready to 
hand in large boxes in the picking room. The picker grasps 
one by the neck, inserts the killing knife in its mouth and sticks 
up through the roof of the mouth, into the brain. The picking 
begins immediately, while the muscles are relaxed, and before 
the death struggle is over the picking is done. The "down" 
is then rubbed off with the fingers and ball of the thumb, which 
are kept damp by dipping now and then into a pan of water. 
Such pin-feathers as are started are then shaved off with a keen- 
edged knife, usually a broad-bladed shoe knife. The tip joint 
of the wings is not picked, and a ring of feathers is left upon the 
upper part of the neck, next to the head. 



chunk of ice of twenty-five or thirty ^pounds weight is placed 
on top, a thickness of burlap spread over all and secured by 
driving the top hoop down over and nailing on, the address tag 
lied to the burlap, the weight of the package marked on the side 
and it is ready for the expressman. 

There is good money in raising ducks for market. The 
ranks of the duck growers are continually extending, but the 
consumptive demand is also constantly extending, and the de- 
mand keeps ahead of the supply. The consuming public recog- 
nizes the high quality of the improved duck, and it is only neces- 
sary to keep up the quality to have the demand steadily increase. 

In the height of the season, which is June, there are about 
twenty men employed, eight or ten being pickers, eight others 
on the general work of feeding, watering, etc., and two on gen- 
eral farm work, teaming grain and supplies from the railway 
three miles distant, etc. After the five or six months of stren- 
uous life is past there comes a time of comparative leisure 
when a well earned vacation can be taken. In the fall months 
buildings are built or repaired, the yard ground ploughed up 




68— TYPICAL ENGLISH AYLESBURY DUCKS 



After being picked and pinned the birds are tossed into a 
tank or barrel of cold water and left to cool for a couple of hours. 
The packer takes the cooled ducks from the tank, washes the 
blood from the rnouth and head, ties the wings close to the body 
and packs them in cases or barrels for shipment. They should 
not be packed till thoroughly cold or until all animal heat is 
out, and if the birds are to go a journey of several hours they 
ild be packed in cracked ice to keep them in good condi- 
tion. Mr. Rankin, at the time of my visit, was shipping his 
ducks to Boston dealers, and as it is only an hour's ride there 
was no need to ice them; most shippers, however, have to ship 
the night before in order to have the birds at the dealers' stands 
in the morning, and the birds are always iced. The Messrs. 
Weber put a layer of ducks in the bottom of a clean barrel, 
then a thin layer of cracked ice, then more ducks, firmly packed 
i"i, and more ice, and BO on. When the barrel is even full a 



and sown to rye, both to sweeten it and furnish fodder for the 
cows and green food for next spring's ducks, and in the winter 
the duck-raiser can "live on easy street." 

Messrs. Weber Bros, breed from two-year-old ducks only, 
all the eggs from ducks in their pullet-year being used for hatch- 
ing market ducks. An item of increased cost which must be 
considered is the over-crowding of the birds. They now put 150 
to 175 youngsters into the pens in the cold houses and as many 
as 200 birds in each flock in the pens in the fattening sheds, 
and one of the brothers told us that in small flocks the duck- 
lings would grow to marketable size and condition a full week 
sooner than where they were so crowded. House room and 
yard room are items in the expense account, but there is a week's 
additional food and labor cost to counterbalance it. Is it econo- 
my to crowd the birds? 

An item of considerable income is the feathers, of which 



90 



HATCHING AND BROODING OF DUCKS 



the. Messrs. Weber sold about 4,000 pounds (two tons!) last 
year. As the feathers fetched thirty-eight to forty cents a 
pound, here was an income of from $1,500 to $1,600 from feath- 
ers alone. 

The steady increase in duck production has been made pos- 
sible by the improvement in methods of hatching and brooding; 
in no other branch of the poultry business are incubators and 
brooders used with so generally good results, and the compar- 



ative perfection of the up-to-date incubators and brooders of 
to-day makes possible the hatching and rearing of a very large 
per cent. As the infant mortality is slight and ducks grow to 
marketable size in ten or eleven weeks' time, the grower soon 
begins to realize a profit upon his investment, and the steady 
increase in public appreciation and consumption of so desirable 
a table delicacy insures a sound, healthy development of the 
business. 



( i 



IF I WERE TO START AGAIN" 



THE MAN WHO IS OFTEN REFERRED TO AS "THE FATHER OF THE PEKIN DUCK 
INDUSTRY IN AMERICA" TELLS WHAT HE WOULD DO IF HE WERE TO START 
ANEW AND GIVES VALUABLE ADVICE IN REGARD TO CARE AND ATTENTION 



JAMES RANKIN 




F I WERE to start over again in the duck business, 
I should not begin as I did. I have learned many 
things, during the past thirty years of experience 
in duck growing which I did not know when I 
first began. One is, that labor is the most ex- 
pensive item in the whole business, and a plant 
should be systematically laid out so as to mini- 
mize that. It is a poor policy to erect a small group of build- 
ings, making them a nucleus to build around as you increase 
your plant from time to time, as so many are doing, and making 
the whole thing about as inconvenient as can be. Select a piece 
of ground with considerable slope to the south. Sandy land, 
if level, will not answer the purpose, as the birds will soon pud- 
dle it and make it water tight, and then trouble begins. We 
make our breeding and broodings houses fifteen feet wide with 
a walk in the rear, and four feet in front. This necessitates an 
uneven double pitch roof. It makes a stiffer, warmer building 
than a shed roof and requires less lumber. For breeding birds, 
these buildings are divided off into pens 12 by 18 feet for thirty 
birds, each, the yards outside being of the same width and about 
100 feet long. 

Located in warm buildings of this kind, judicious feed and 
care will soon compel the birds to lay. But it is one thing to 
induce egg production during the winter season, and quite 
another to secure highly fertilized eggs, which can only be done 
by a careful feeding and a well balanced ration. See following 
formula for feeding laying ducks: 

Equal parts wheat bran and corn meal; twenty per cent 
of Quaker oat feed; ten per cent of boiled turnips or potatoes; 
ten per cent of clover-rowen, green rye or refuse cabbage chop- 
ped fine; five per cent of grit. Feed twice a day all they will 
eat, with a lunch of corn and oats at noon. 

We never cook the food for our ducks after they are a week 
old, but mix with cold water. The birds should be fed all they 
will eat up clean of this ration twice a day. Never keep food by 
them or allow it to sour. They should not be let out till they 
are through laying in the morning. 

They should be watered at least four times each day. It 
would be a great saving of labor if a small stream or brook 
should run through the lower part of the yards so that the 
birds could obtain water at will. We usually mate about one 
drake to five ducks. 

As a rule, the first eggs laid by young birds are apt to be 
infertile, though if the birds are well cared for and fed, the 
fertility rapidly increases and will often reach from ninety to 
ninety-eight per cent. Of course the hatching should be done 
artificially. The incubators should be located where the tem- 
perature is as nearly uniform as possible. The eggs should be 
turned carefully twice a day, moving them from the ends to 



center of trays and vice versa. The machines should be run 
at 102 degrees the first fifteen days and at 103 degrees the re- 
mainder of the hatch. The eggs may be tested the third day of 
incubation. They should be cooled a little once each day, espe- 
cially the latter part of the hatch, though usually they are 
cooled sufficiently while turning. No specified time can be 
given, as that depends upon the temperature in which the ma- 
chines are located. 

WHAT TO FEED 

The little birds should be left in the machine for about 
thirty-six hours after hatching. The heat in the brooders should 
be about ninety degrees the first day or two and be gradually 
reduced as the birds become stronger. Feed them according 
to formula, as follows: 

The first four days, feed equal parts of rolled oats and crack- 
er crumbs; ten per cent hard boiled egg, chopped fine; five per 
cent coarse sand. Feed four times a day what they will eat 
clean. 

From four days to three weeks old, feed equal parts of rolled 
oats and wheat bran; ten per cent corn meal; five per cent coarse 
sand; five per cent fine ground beef scrap, soaked. Give finely 
cut green clover, rye or cabbage. Feed four times a day. 

From three to six weeks old, feed equal parts ' corn meal, 
wheat bran and Quaker oat feed; three per cent fine grit; five 
per cent beef scraps. Mix in green food. Feed four times a day. 

From six to eight weeks old, feed three parts corn meal; 
two parts wheat bran; one part Quaker oat-feed; three per cent 
grit. Feed three times a day. 

From eight to ten weeks old, feed two-thirds corn meal; 
one third equal parts of wheat bran and oat feed; ten per cent 
beef scrap; three per cent grit. Give oyster shells and less green 
food. Feed three times a day. They should now be ready 
for market. 

Our brooding arrangement consists simply of a two inch 
flow and return pipe running horizontally, ten inches apart the 
whole length of the building and boxed in about two feet wide, 
the upper boards resting upon the pipes. This brooding box 
should be partitioned every four feet with pens of corresponding 
width. The distance between the pipes and floor should be at 
first about three inches, gradually increasing it as the birds 
grow larger. The top half of these brooding boxes is hinged 
in the center next to the walk, so they can be lifted up to facili- 
tate cleaning. 

Water pans should be arranged so that the little birds can 
get their bills in to drink and not their bodies. From sixty to 
seventy-five ducklings are a full complement for each of these 
pens and when four weeks old they should be removed to larger 
quarters. 

91 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING 




Great can should Iv taken to disinfect the pens and keep 
them dry and dean, as neglect in this particular will soon mani- 
fest itself in the sore eyes and emaciated bodies of the young 
birds and a great mortality will surely follow. 

One thing 1 neglected to mention is, that uniform heat 
should be kept in the brooding boxes. The pipes are supposed 
to radiate the same amount of heat the entire length of the 
building. The ducklings, as they grow older require less and 
. -- We obviate this difficulty by increasing the distance be- 
tween the pipes and the 
Boor, always putting: the 
newly hatched birds next 
the heater and moving 
the older ones towards the 
other end of the building 
to make room. 

For one embarking 
in the duck business, L 
should advise purchasing 
eggs from a reliable 
grower of first elass stock 
(one who will guarantee 
fresh, fertile eggs') and se- 
cure enough of them to 
produce all the breeding 
>t ock for t he c o m i n g 
year. The advantage of 
this course over purchas- 
ing a few breeding birds 
to get stock is obvious; 
it will give early birds of 
one age that will be ready 
for business and repro- 
duce early in the season, 
and the care is soon over. 
A few old birds would 

give but a few eggs each day, which would either necessitate 
hatching them under hens or keeping the eggs till they were 
old in order to fill a machine, and it would be necessary to be 
hatching the entire season; the young birds would be of all 
ages and would not be uniform in size and value. 

In regard to the relative profit derived from growing ducks 
or chickens, would say that there is very little difference. Duck- 
lings during March and April usually command from thirty to 
thirty-five cents per pound in Boston and New York markets, 
while roasting chickens are then worth twenty to twenty-five 
cents per pound. During June and July, chickens readily com- 
mand from thirty to thirty-five cents, while ducklings are worth 
but fourteen or eighteen cents in the same market. 



PEKIN DUCKS 

MATING, HATCHING AND FEEDING— FEATH- 
ERS A SOURCE OF CONSIDERABLE PROFIT 

FRANCES E. WHEELER 

I J DOES seem rather hard on as sometimes that we are able 
to profit so feebly by the experience of others and with 
all the wish in the world and the willingness can "pass on" 
00 little of our knowledge to those we would fain help if we 
could. "Work out your own salvation" is an iron bound law 
and applies quite as truly to man's physical as to his spiritual 
being. In our life's work we have to take hold each of us in 
our own way; what we gain an insight of — that is, the practical 
part or detail— is not much of it. adaptable to others. "Live and 



learn, die and forget it all," 1 used to think a hard saying of my 
grandmother's, but have grown to realize its deep wisdom and 
truth. Especial cause have we to remember it this spring at 
Clovernook in the mating of our Pekin ducks. Heretofore we 
have separated our breeders in October and wintered them in 
one flock. Last fall we had so many that in December we divid- 
ed them into two flocks and yarded them separately. This 
February we picked from among them a choice Hallock drake 
and penned him with five of our largest ducks. Their eggs we 



69— -GROUP OF CHOICE PEKINS 

kept separate to hatch out in a pedigree tray. At the first test 
we had four fertile eggs out of the twenty-two! The balance of 
our eggs rated nine infertile out of one hundred and eighty 
eggs. Again we put the two flocks together and the egg yield 
promptly advanced twenty-five per cent. 

If the points thus submitted are correctly understood, the 
natural inference would be that if each drake and his five ducks 
were separated in the early fall and kept yarded separately for 
a few weeks there would be secured a decided benefit to the 
spring output, and the importance of not disturbing the breeders 
after the fall round up would be emphasized. 

The ration of our breeders during "egg time" is: Two 
measures of corn meal, one and a half measure of ground oats, 
one and a half measures of wheat bran, and a half measure of 
beef scraps. To this is added about one-fourth the bulk in green 
stuff. At noon there is scattered to them two measures of 
whole corn, oats and barley (mixed). They are yarded until 
noon when they go to the river for the balance of the day. Of 
course plenty of water, sand and grit is always before them. 

I have grown to have a decided respect for ducks, because 
they know so much and so quickly show up our mistakes. No 
fowl responds so promptly to care or neglect. A slight change 
in the first "tells the tale" in a week or two. For example, I 
ordered a shipment of ground oats; they sent me instead what 
we call "provender," a mixture of everything, mostly shucks. 
In less than two weeks the egg yield dropped one-third and it 
took two more weeks to bring it back to its original standard. 

Evaporation is so rapid in our section (the Adirondack 
region) that in order to get best results from our incubators 
when the hatch is on we have to shut up the incubator room 
three or four times during the last forty-eight hours and with 
boiling water sprinkle the floor around the machines. We use 



92 



HATCHING AND BROODING OF DUCKS 



two quarts each time and open up the room in about a half 
hour. During the last two weeks of the hatch we also sprinkle 
the eggs; otherwise the shells have a dry, feverish, brittle feeling, 
and the ducklings cannot seem to break through them. The 
skin is tough and leathery and in many cases the inner wrapping 
dries and mummifies the birds. 

We find that a comfortably heated brooder house is of more 
importance than to have their little brooder at any exact tem- 
perature. This latter must, of course, be comfortably warm; but 
lots of bother and loss have been saved us of late by a good 
stove running steadily all the time. When the ducklings run 
out of their warm bedroom to feed or drink, they are chilled or 
troubled with rheumatism or cramps. Again we do not hurry 
them out of the incubator, but let them get well dried off and 
when we do change them to the brooder, for the first twenty- 
four hours we place only water and sand before them. Their 
water is tepid and the food is — well, sometimes one thing, some- 
times another. Just now they are getting bread crumbs soaked 
in milk and dried to crumbly consistency with corn meal and 
wheat bran. After they are a week old we give them either a 



little fine chopped, hard boiled egg, or well soaked beef scraps. 
We put before them only what they will eat up clean and after 
the first two weeks feed four times a day until marketed. 

For the second month their ration is one-third corn meal, 
one-third wheat bran, one-third ground oats and gradually 
work up from one-fifteenth of beef scraps to one-tenth, which 
continue until marketed. To the above we add one-fourth in 
bulk of fine cut green stuff, preferably clover. During the third 
month the proportion of corn meal is gradually increased until 
it is about three-fifths to three-fourths of the food given. We 
also shorten up their yards. 

When raising ducks on a small plant it is a good plan — 
when the ducks are being prepared for market — to have the 
coarse feathers (of wings and tail) kept apart and the fine 
feathers and down picked together and spread in a clean, airy 
place to cure, which takes about a month. These feathers may 
be sold to the local trade at from 60 to 75 cents per pound; 
five ducks usually yield about one pound. They may also be 
made into sofa pillows and a little advertising of this is all that 
is necessary. 



FEEDING FOR MARKET OR BREEDERS 



FEEDING NURSERY DUCKLINGS— FATTENING THE DUCKLINGS— FEEDING STOCK 
DUCKS-FEEDING THE BREEDERS— HINTS IN REGARD TO FEEDING FOR EGGS 

H. E. MOSS 




|HE duck farmers of this country who conduct the 
business on a commercial scale are, so far as feed- 
ing methods are concerned, far in advance of 
those engaged in any other branch of the poultry 
business. They have reduced the feeding ques- 
tion to what may be called a certainty if not a 
science. They have every branch of it from start 
to finish under perfect control and while but few 
of them perhaps would undertake to demonstrate what consti- 
tutes successful feeding from a scientific viewpoint, or even 
undertake to figure the nutritive value of the different feeds, 
they never-the-less know exactly what to use and what results 
will follow as well as if they had worked it out scientifically; 
they have been through the severe school of experience. 

The writer enjoys the personal acquaintance of nearly 
every one of these men, and has visited practically every large 
farm in this country, and knows what has been accomplished. 
They do not all feed exactly alike, so far as the materials used 
are concerned, and it will be found that the best results are 
obtained by those who approach, either intentionally or other- 
wise the correct nutritive ratio, the secret of successful duck 
feeding. 

I admit that ducks will eat almost anything, and that 
after they are ten days or two weeks old they will not only 
eat, but manage to live and grow to maturity although thrown 
almost entirely upon their own resources, if given a chance to 
rustle. But this would not answer our purpose. We must de- 
vise a system of feeding that will produce the most rapid growth 
and greatest weight in the shortest time. The food must be 
composed of material demanded by the nature and constitution 
of the duck, and easily digestible; otherwise it will not only be 
wasted, but may injure or kill the ducklings, which it will if 
it steps too far out of the narrow path wherein safety lies. 
Forcing their growth on a concentrated feed is an entirely dif- 
ferent proposition from their natural, slower growth on mate- 
rial of their own selection. 

FEEDING NURSERY DUCKLINGS 

' The critical period in a duckling's life is during the first ten 
days of its existence. The handling and care during this per- 



iod determines whether or not they go to market at a profit 

When they are hatched the yolk which has just been taken 
into the abdominal cavity contains sufficient nourishment to 
sustain them thirty-six hours or more. They should be taken 
from the incubator thirty-six hours after the hatch is over, 
which if properly conducted will be the evening of the twenty- 
ninth day, as they should be practically all out of the shells on 
the morning of the twenty-eighth day. They. should then as 
they are transferred to the brooder (and this applies to chicks 
as well) be taken one at a time and their bill dipped in blood 
warm water, if they get only a drop it will be found that this 
will prove the means of saving many that would otherwise suf- 
fer and perhaps to a degree that would later on prove fatal; 
for one drop of water at this time will so aid the assimilation of 
the yolk that must take place, or should before any food is 
taken, that many deaths from unabsorbed yolk will be pre- 
vented. This takes time, but it pays to do it. 

Of course ducklings quickly find the water, but there are 
always a few that do not until it is perhaps too late to save 
them. Both ducks and chicks when hatched can wait seventy- 
two hours before taking food and I believe to their advantage, 
but they must not be deprived of water. 

The first feed should consist of stale bread crumbs soaked, 
in skim milk and squeezed dry with the least bit of fine sand 
sprinkled over it. This should be kept constantly before them 
day and night for the first forty-eight or sixty hours, renewing 
it every three hours. This has the effect of thoroughly cleans- 
ing the entire digestive tract of all acid and urate accumula- 
tions and fitting them for the rapid and active work they must 
now take up, for without a ravenous appetite and perfect diges- 
tion they cannot reach the stage we desire. I shall not go into 
the details of brooding houses and temperature here, but con- 
fine myself to feeding alone. I will assume the reader has 
these details correctly and firmly fixed in his mind and is prac- 
ticing them. 

The next ten days that now follow are the important ones, 
so far as temperature and food are concerned and those that 
safely survive this period are not only safe, but far more hardy 
than chicks at the same age. 

Their feed during this period should consist of: 



93 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING 



One measure of stale bread crumbs or cracker crumbs; 
One measure of white middlings or pollard; 
One-half measure of fine bran; 
Five per cent of sand. 

Wei tliis with skim milk or water, using only enough to 
stack it together. Feed four times m day. Scatter it on flat 
boards, made say one foot by three with an inch strip around 
the edge. Give them twenty minutes during which to eat; then 
remove the hoard. 

Keep water before them at all times day and night, but in 
the nursery always have the chill taken off. Wash the dunk- 
ing receptacles at each feeding, and if for any reason their 
pans have Iven allowed to become empty be sure to give them 
their food before placing water before them, especially at the 
first morning feed or colic may result, which is often fatal. 



Four measures of tine bran; 

Three measures of white middlings (pollard); 

One measure of corn meal (maize); 

Three measures of fresh cut green clover or rye or two of 
steamed clover meal; 

Five per cent (of the grain feed) of sand; 

Five per cent (of the grain feed) of beef scraps. 

I prefer to keep water constantly before them, although 
they can worry along without it except at feeding time. 

This ration will not fatten; it is not intended that it should, 
for to feed any more corn meal at this time would starve the 
bone, muscle and feather growth and they would soon be crawl- 
ing on their bellies broken down or throw their heads back and 
fall in a fit, wfiich usually ends fatally and is the sure result of 
feeding a too highly carbonaceous or fattening and heating 




70— WATER FOWL AT THE LONDON DAIRY SHOW 



They will scatter considerable water on the bedding around the 
drinking fountains and will also drop particles of food on it; 
this soon becomes sour and the wet portion should be renewed 
every day, otherwise they dig in it and eat it to their injury. 

GROWING DUCKLINGS 

At the end of ten days they are transferred from the nur- 
sery to the brooding house proper. Here they are given more 
room and also outside runs to exercise and sun themselves in, 
but when: both sun and shade are found. We now aim to grow 
all the frame and muscle possible until they are seven weeks old, 
and we feed them four times a clay until they are five weeks 
old, and then three times a day the following, mixed as before: 



ration. There is plenty of time to fatten them after the frame 
is grown, which at seven weeks old, has been sufficiently accom- 
plished to permit it. When they reach this age we select the 
most precocious and promising ones for the next season's breed- 
ers and turn the others into the fattening sheds. 

FATTENING DUCKLINGS 

In these sheds are fed three times a day on the following 
mixed as before: 

Two measures of corn meal (maize meal); 
Two measures of white middlings (pollard); 
One measure of bran; 
One measure of cut green clover or rye; 



94 



HATCHING AND BROODING OF DUCKS 



Ten per cent of beef scraps; 

Five per cent of sand. 

They remain here until they are between nine and ten 
•weeks old, when they are ready for market. They of course 
Tnust have shade and a constant supply of water in these sheds. 
As the weather grows warmer they will eat much less at noon 
than at morning or night, but here as well as in the brooding 
house be careful and do not overfeed. 

It is better to leave them a little hungry than to overdo 
it. Twenty minutes is time enough for them to eat all they 
should and whatever is left must be removed. Ducklings fed 
in this way should weigh from ten to twelve pounds per pair 
at this time. 

Do not keep them longer than ten weeks. Let this be the 
limit, for they then begin growing their adult plumage and the 
pin feathers that now start will make them very difficult to 
pick properly or rapidly; and as all their strength will be em- 
ployed in growing this crop of feathers they will gain nothing 
an weight during the next six weeks. The feed they consume 
would be practically wasted, adding so much to their cost that 
instead of making a profit, they would show a loss. 

FEEDING STOCK DUCKS 

The birds that are selected to be raised for stock ducks for 
•the next season should be turned into a pasture where there 
is water and shade. If marshy and swampy so much the bet- 
ter, they will find most of the food they require, but they should 
■be fed morning and night as follows: 

Three measures of cracked corn (maize); 

Seven measures of fine bran; 

Five measures of cut green clover. 

If there is no marsh or water in the pasture in which they 
•can find bugs and worms there must be five per cent of beef 
scraps added to this feed. 

They remain in this pasture until late in the fall and the 
quantity of food given them must be governed by the quantity 
they are able to pick up on the range. 

This feed does not encourage egg production in the fall, 
-which we try to avoid. Should a few begin laying, cut down 
the feed. It is not desirable to have laying begin until Christ- 
mas, but April hatched ducklings will if encouraged lay a few 
•eggs in October and November. They will be largely infertile 
:and too far out of season to serve our best purpose. 

THE BREEDING STOCK 

Latitude and markets will vary considerably the time when 
it is desirable to make up the breeding pens, but generally the 
first of November is early enough for any locality. The birds 
are then divided up in pens with twenty-five females to five 
males in each. Feeding for eggs should be started three weeks 
before we wish them to begin laying and we have them so well 
sunder control that this will result on the following feed: 

Five measures of cracked corn; 

Five measures of fine bran; 

Two measures of white middlings; 

One and one-half measures beef scraps; 

Three measures of boiled potatoes or turnips; 



Three measures of cut green clover or rye. 

If the winter should be very severe and there is an exces- 
sive demand upon the birds for fuel to keep up their internal 
fires, the quantity of corn meal must be slightly increased to 
provide it. They will not fatten unless they are fed an excess 
above the demands made for fuel and energy. The feeder must 
use judgment in this and increase the quantity when conditions 
demand it. Avoid fattening, but put all the flesh on them 
possible. No fowl can or will produce eggs if in poor flesh, 
but flesh and fat are two entirely different products. Carbo- 
naceous food produces fat and supplies heat and energy; it is 
fuel, and any surplus is stored as fat for future use. Protein 
produces flesh, bone and feathers and has other important uses 
in the vital processes going on within. To supply the neces- 
sary amount of both is what we attempt and the above formula 
will answer as a basis, to be varied only in extreme weather 
as directed. 

The formulas I give above are those I have used in my own 
work and the result of a wide experience. They are correct 
both in theory and practice. 

In addition to above I wish to add that it is advisable to 
keep a box of ground oyster shells in each pen of stock ducks, 
and also to feed a lunch of about a quart of whole corn at noon 
to each pen during the laying season. When this is done the 
corn in the mash may be meal instead of coarse cracked. The 
idea is to give the gizzard some work to perform to keep the 
digestive organs in perfect health. 

Watch the birds closely and see that they come up raven- 
ously hungry at each feeding. The more they can eat and digest 
properly the more profitable they become. 

In mixing mashes for poultry of all kinds there should be 
added at the rate of one pound of salt to every hundred pounds ' 
of grain except for the newly hatched birds in the nursery. 

Should there be any indications of bowel trouble at any 
time, use a little powdered charcoal in the mash for a few feeds 
and it will correct it. Keep the yard clean and free from pud- 
dles of filth and feed only the best material and at regular hours 
and no such trouble need be anticipated. 

TESTING DUCK EGGS 

Duck eggs should be tested more frequently than hen eggs. 
Three or four tests during the hatch being necessary, the first 
test may be on the fourth or fifth day, when the embryo duck can 
be readily seen through the clear shell of the egg, if a good tester 
is used. After the first test a few eggs should be examined 
every day or two, to see how the hatch is progressing, and if 
any foul odor is noticed on opening the machine, the rotten 
eggs should be tested out and removed. For the beginner it 
will be necessary to examine the eggs with a tester or else "smell 
them out" in order to find the eggs which give rise to the foul 
odor. An expert operator can tell the putrid eggs by the chang- 
ed appearance of the shell almost at sight; for, as a rule, the 
putrid egg shows a slightly bluish or discolored, marbled ap- 
pearance on some portion of the shell, which is not found in the 
eggs containing live, healthy germs. Duck eggs become putrid 
very quickly after the germ dies, and give off foul gases which 
endanger the lives of the little birds in remaining eggs. 



95 






I** 



INDEX 



Beginners: Help for 28 

Bretxiing Stock; Conditioning.. 26 

Breeding Stock. The 16 

Broilers 75 

Broiler Raising; Profitable—. 75 

Brooder and Chicks: Care of.. 58 

Brooder Chicks; Raising 61 

Brooder House: A Successful 32 

Brooder Operation: Successful... 55 

Brooding; Artificial... .' 55 

Care of Brooder and Chicks.. 58 

Chicks: Artificial Hatching of 45 

Chicks; Care of Brooder and— 58 

Chick Feeds; Ready-Mixed. 60 

Chick Growing; Successful 67 

Chicks for Sale; Hatching 54 

Chick Industry; The Day-Old- „ 52 

Chicks: Raising Brooder 61 

Chicks; Selling Day-Old.. 52 

Chicks; Starting the. 63 

Chicks; The Hatching of 51 

Chicks; The Mortality of 49 

Day-Old Chick Industry; The... 52 

Dry Feeding; Notes on... 62 

Ducks: Artificial Hatching of_ 85 

Ducks; Hatching and Brooding of.. 85 

Ducks; Hatching, Feeding and Marketing 88 

Ducks; Pekin.. .'. 92 

Egg.-: Fertility in.... _ 26 

Egg and It- Germ; The 13 

Eggs; Hatchable. 22 

. Practical Study of. 13 

Egg Tester; A New.. 50 

h-s'j-: Weak Germs in Winter 24 

Feeding and Marketing Ducks; Hatching 88 

Feeding for Market or Breeders 93 

J eeding, Housing and Rearing.. 71 



Feeding; Notes on Dry 62" 

Feeding; Start with Hopper 66 

Feeds; Ready-Mixed Chick..... 60 

Fertility in Eggs 26 

Hatches; Vigorous Stock; Good. 27 

Hatching Chicks for Sale.. 54 

Hatching of Chicks; The... 51 

Hatching of Chicks; Artificial— 45 

Hatching of Ducks; Artificial. 85 

Hatching with Incubators.. 46 

Heating of Brooding Houses; The. 34 

Hopper Feeding; Start With... 66 

House; A Successful Brooder 32 

Houses; Incubator and Brooding— .....". 29 

Houses; Modern Incubator 29 

Houses; The Heating of Brooding. 34 

Housing and Rearing; Feeding 71 

"If I Were to Start Again".. 91 

Incubating; Ancient Artificial— 10 

Incubation; Artificial-.. 37 

Incubation; Successful Artificial—. 37 

Incubators; A Few Hints on Buying. 41 

Incubators; Egyptian.. 10' 

Incubators; Hatching With... 46 

Incubator Houses; Modern 29 

Incubators; Success With 47 

Incubators; The Advantages of .'. 48 

Introduction.. _ 8 

Marketing Ducks; Hatching, Feeding and 88 

Methods; Sound, Practical 69 

Mortality of Chicks; The. 49 

Pekin Ducks... .: 92 

Piping System; Overhead... 35 

Piping System; Underneath 34 

Rearing; Feeding, Housing and.—. 71 

Stock; Good Hatches; Vigorous. 27 

Weak Germs in Winter Eggs — 24V 



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